Thursday, February 8, 2007

Broad Institute maps the first horse genome

Researchers from the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Institute in Cambridge have completed a $15 million effort to map the genome of a horse, and deposited the information into a public database, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), which funded the project.

The horse genome came from a blood sample of a mare named Twilight, which is stabled at the Baker Institute of Animal Health in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

The sequencing project, which began in 2006, is part of a 10-year effort among scientists worldwide known as the Horse Genome Project to research horse genes to solve health problems of the species.

The NHGRI is one of 27 National Institutes of Health. Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, at the Broad Institute, led the team of researchers that sequenced the horse genome.