On Nov. 20, 2024, a research collaboration between the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) announced they are helping uncover new information about the Y chromosome in horses.

The study led by the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, has uncovered that the Y chromosome does have meaningful variation and is important for species diversity. The same team recently published a study in the journal PNAS that traces the male lineage of horses using the Y chromosome.

Currently, pedigrees are how horse owners and breeders find out which stallions are in a horse’s ancestry, which gives information on the traits a horse may have inherited. However, pedigrees are recorded manually, and they may go back only a few generations. The new analysis capabilities provide the ability to trace an individual horse’s paternal ancestry, and to avoid crossing certain male lineages to protect the health of offspring or the future of the breed.