An Update on Status and Conservation of the Przewalski’s Horse (Equus ferus przewalskii): Captive Breeding and Reintroduction Projects

Turghan, Mardan Aghabey; Jiang, Zhigang; Niu, Zhongze

doi:10.3390/ani12223158

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 105 publications

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“…Targeted captive breeding and management programs, including published studbooks since 1959, have increased the Przewalski's horse population to over 2,000 individuals [14,9,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Introgression from the domestic horse, loss of natural habitat and resources, harsh climates, and hunting contributed to a severe population bottleneck and subsequent extinction in the wild in the 1960s [7, 8]. All current Przewalski’s horses are descendants of 12 wild-caught individuals and several domesticated horses [6, 7, 9]. Massive conservation efforts have focused on preserving the genetic diversity of this endangered species [10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Targeted captive breeding and management programs, including published studbooks since 1959, have increased the Przewalski’s horse population to over 2,000 individuals [14, 9, 3]. Reintroduction efforts starting in the 1980s have successfully established wild herds in protected lands of Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan [16, 9, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21], and have improved the species’ status from critically endangered to endangered [1].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The genome of Przewalski’s horse (Equus ferus przewalskii)

Flack,

Hughes,

Cassens

et al. 2024

Preprint

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The Przewalski’s horse (Equus ferus przewalskii) is an endangered equid native to the steppes of central Asia. After becoming extinct in the wild, multiple conservation efforts convened to preserve the species including captive breeding programs, reintroduction and monitoring systems, protected lands, and cloning. Availability of a highly contiguous reference genome is essential to support these continued efforts. We used Oxford Nanopore sequencing to produce a scaffold-level 2.5 Gb nuclear assembly and 16,002 bp mitogenome from a captive Przewalski’s mare. All assembly drafts were generated from 111 Gb of sequence from a single PromethION R10.4.1 flow cell. The mitogenome contained 37 genes in the standard mammalian configuration and was 99.63% identical to the domestic horse (Equus caballus). The nuclear assembly, EquPr2, contained 2,146 scaffolds with an N50 of 85.1 Mb, 43X mean depth, and BUSCO quality score of 98.92%. EquPr2 successfully improves upon the existing Przewalski’s horse reference genome (Burgud), with 25-fold fewer scaffolds, a 166-fold larger N50, and phased pseudohaplotypes. Modified basecalls revealed 79.5% DNA methylation and 2.1% hydroxymethylation globally. Allele-specific methylation analysis between pseudohaplotypes revealed 226 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) in known imprinted genes and loci not previously reported as imprinted. The heterozygosity rate of 0.165% matches previous estimates for the species and compares favorably to other endangered animals. This improved Przewalski’s horse assembly will serve as a valuable resource for conservation efforts and comparative genomics investigations.

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“…Targeted captive breeding and management programs, including published studbooks since 1959, have increased the Przewalski's horse population to over 2,000 individuals [14,9,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The genome of Przewalski’s horse (Equus ferus przewalskii)

Flack,

Hughes,

Cassens

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…After the discovery of this species in the 1870s in the Asian steppes, Przewalski’s horses become extinct in the wild by 1969 but survived in captivity. Since the 1970s, horses were exchanged between zoos in order to reduce the level of inbreeding [ 38 , 39 , 40 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At present, the worldwide population of the living Przewalski’s horses has reached nearly 2500 individuals [ 42 ]. Among them, approximately 1360 horses live in the wild in China and Mongolia, 900 are distributed in zoos in Europe, and 120 in wildlife parks in the US [ 39 , 40 , 42 , 43 , 44 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Satellite-Free Centromere in Equus przewalskii Chromosome 10

Piras

Cappelletti

Abdelgadir

et al. 2023

IJMS

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In mammals, centromeres are epigenetically specified by the histone H3 variant CENP-A and are typically associated with satellite DNA. We previously described the first example of a natural satellite-free centromere on Equus caballus chromosome 11 (ECA11) and, subsequently, on several chromosomes in other species of the genus Equus. We discovered that these satellite-free neocentromeres arose recently during evolution through centromere repositioning and/or chromosomal fusion, after inactivation of the ancestral centromere, where, in many cases, blocks of satellite sequences were maintained. Here, we investigated by FISH the chromosomal distribution of satellite DNA families in Equus przewalskii (EPR), demonstrating a good degree of conservation of the localization of the major horse satellite families 37cen and 2PI with the domestic horse. Moreover, we demonstrated, by ChIP-seq, that 37cen is the satellite bound by CENP-A and that the centromere of EPR10, the ortholog of ECA11, is devoid of satellite sequences. Our results confirm that these two species are closely related and that the event of centromere repositioning which gave rise to EPR10/ECA11 centromeres occurred in the common ancestor, before the separation of the two horse lineages.

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