Comparative population genomics unveils candidate genes for athletic performance in Hanoverians

Equine athletes have a genetic heritage that has been evolved for millions of years, which provides an opportunity to study the genetics of locomotion pattern and performance in mammals. The Hanoverian, a breed originating in Germany, is arguably among the most athletic horse breeds, due to its balanced character and beautiful appearance. Here, we compared the whole genomes of Hanoverian with other three horse breeds (Akhal-Teke, Franches-Montagnes and Standardbred), using the fixation index (Fst) and cross-population composite likelihood ratio (XP-CLR) methods for testing the multilocus allele frequency differentiation between populations. We identified 299 and 485 positively selected genes using the Fst and XP-CLR methods, respectively. Further functional analyses showed that the ACTA1 gene is potentially involved in athletic performance in Hanoverian breed, consistent with its role observed in human population. In addition, three other loci on chromosomes 1 and 20 were identified to be potentially invo...