Xuexue Liu, Yanli Zhang, Wujun Liu, Yefang Li, Jianfei Pan, Yabin Pu, Jianlin Han, Ludovic Orlando, Yuehui Ma, Lin Jiang
Chinese ponies are endemic to the mountainous areas of southwestern China and were first reported in the archaeological record at the Royal Tomb of Zhongshan King, Mancheng, dated to approximately ∼2,100 YBP.1 Previous work has started uncovering the genetic basis of size variation in western ponies and horses, revealing a limited number of loci, including HMGA2,2 LCORL/NCAPG,3 ZFAT, and LASP1.4 , 5 Whether the same genetic pathways also drive the small body size of Chinese ponies, which show striking anatomical differences to Shetland ponies,6 remains unclear...
December 7, 2021: Current Biology: CB