Mitotyping Project

Mitotyping Project
By Loren Bolinger 9/14/2005

Unlike previous scientific inquiries, my first impulse was to present
our project directly to the typical Thoroughbred breeders across the
USA and internationally. The Internet and several breeders' e-mail
discussion groups proved useful to query a wide range of breeders
directly at minimum cost. I was curious as to the interest of other
Thoroughbred breeders to my passion and obsession. I also thought
that it would be more likely to pick up a wider range of unusual
matrilines, scientifically interesting, and suitable candidates for
sampling. Some of the matrilines are rare or obscure and more likely
to be found in the hinterlands. These rare matrilines may have
important relevance to our project.

One, very satisfying observation I've made, is the surprising numbers
of horse breeders sophisticated about maternal lineages,
mitochondrial inheritance, the Lowe family numbers of their horses,
and the potential of my mitotyping project to not only accurately
resolve known identity problems, discover unknown, longstanding mis-
identifications, but also for its application by horse breeders to
future selective matings. All horse breeders passionately want to
improve their stock. Accurate identification of lineage is crucial
to many selective breeding schemes.

The response to my mtDNA inquiry has been warmly rewarding to me
through the very large volume of e-mail and overall enthusiasm of
horse breeders internationally. I had planned to place small
advertisements in industry publications to get a wider range of
samples, but now must wait additional funding.

I have received tremendous grassroots response to what some might
regard as a rather obscure, technical inquiry. I can assure the
Jockey Club that my informal and anecdotal survey reveals that a
majority of Thoroughbred breeders are, in fact, tremendously
interested in the potential of mitochondrial research, more accurate
identification of maternal lineages and therefore, more accurate
identification of most all Thoroughbreds in the current population to
the current limits of modern scientific methods. The biological
knowledge and advances in scientific technologies are accelerating at
a mind-spinning rate - new discoveries coming almost day-by-day. We
are in a new golden age of genomic discovery. It would be unfair to
the breed we love to not take advantage of these advances to preserve
and conserve the Thoroughbred horse. For the most part, we still use
archaic selective breeding practices at a time when the biological
sciences are making major contributions the health and welfare of
humans and many species of domesticated and wild plants and animals.
If the knowledge learned from mitotyping could be used to reduce the
needless wastage and injury, minimize genetic defects and diseases,
conserve the breed for the future, while improving selective mating
techniques that produce the modern Thoroughbred racehorse, the effort
and expense would be well worth it. To my mind, it is a win - win
situation.

I strongly believe that ultimate responsibility for the
identification of the Thoroughbred lies with the keepers of the
General Stud Book, such as the Jockey Club and other international
keepers of the studbooks in their countries. They have the existing
recorded data, the authority, and the resources. There are an unknown
number of undiscovered haplotypes in lineages of the current
Thoroughbred population. One of my intentions is to attempt to
discover as many of the unknown haplotypes as my means allow; the
purpose being to make known the entire number of surviving haplotypes
comprising the modern Thoroughbred breed. I believe this is an
important project and I hope that my tiny mtDNA study will inspire
and encourage the appropriate authorities to create and fund an
international project to identify and verify all Thoroughbreds to the
limits of our technologies as far back as possible.

Yours truly,
Loren

Loren Bolinger
Running Horse Farm LLC
7102 Ilfield Road Southwest
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87105-7046
505-873-2220 Voice
505-877-4443 FAX
e-mail: lbolinger1@comcast.net