Abstract:
SCID is a lethal genetic autosomal recessive disord
er that has been observed in humans,
dogs, mice, and horses. Affected animals are incapa
ble of generating specific antigens for
immune responses needed to protect them from infect
ious diseases. The frequency of
affected recessive allele varies in different regio
ns so that the outcome of normal breeding
with carriers of recessive alleles is differently d
istributed. Little information is available
for SCID carriers in Iranian horses to prevent carr
iers breeding. In this study, the
occurrence of the SCID alleles was tested in repres
entative samples of Persian Arabian
(or Asil) horses. Blood samples were collected from
244 Arabian horses in eight provinces
of Iran. The ARMS-PCRs were used for the first time
to identify SCID carriers, based on
three distinguishing primer pairs. Each sample was
used in two separate PCRs with a
common forward primer. The two reverse primers diff
ered in their 3
′
end: one reverse
primer could pick the wild-type allele while the ot
her could pick the mutant allele with a
3
′
end deletion. An internal control (HMS02 locus) wa
s used in both reactions to verify
whether the amplifications worked correctly. The re
sults showed a mutated allele
frequency of 0.8% in the Arabian horse population o
f Iran. This is the first report
identifying SCID carriers’ frequency among Arabian
horse population in Iran.
Keywords
: Arabian Horses, ARMS-PCR, DNA-PK
CS
, SCID.
