Breed Differences in Dopamine Receptor D4 Gene (DRD4) in Horses.

ABSTRACT: Genetic polymorphisms in genes related to neurotransmitters or hormones affect personality or behavioral traits in many animal species including humans. In domestic animals, the allele frequency of such genes has been reported to be different among breeds and it may account for breed differences in behavior. In this study, we investigated breed differences in horses in the dopamine receptor D4 gene (DRD4), which has been reported to affect horse personality. We collected samples from seven horse breeds including those native to Japan and Korea, and compared the sequence of the DRD4 exon3 region among these breeds. We found that there were two types of polymorphisms (VNTR and SNPs) in the exon3 region, and some of them seemed to be breed-specific. In addition, we found that the allele frequ

SUBMITTER: Hori Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4013985 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature