“It puts a whole new set of tools in play…it’s as if you are farmers that are used to relying on plows pulled by a draft animal, and all the sudden you have tractors,” says Jamie MacLeod, VMD, PhD, professor of veterinary science and Knight Chair for Musculoskeletal Sciences at the University of Kentucky’s Gluck Equine Research Center, of the news that the horse genome will be sequenced.

A Thoroughbred mare will soon join the human, mouse, dog, and other species on the list of mammals whose genomes have been sequenced and mapped. The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) is currently working on a high-level equine genome sequence, which is a major breakthrough for equine genetic researchers who want to better understand and solve common health conditions in the horse. Additionally, the horse genome map will assist human researchers in unlocking human health mysteries.

Scientists at the Broad Institute, a part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, are churning out segments of the horse genome sequence daily and posting them on a web site, where they are available for immediate use by equine researchers. Before this development, if an individual began a project on a particular DNA region, he or she first would have to obtain a DNA sequence for that region. This preliminary work would take six to eight months and cost up to $80,000. Now the process is akin to pulling a reference book out of a library.

The high density sequencing of the horse should cost roughly $30 million