Exploring the Genetic Landscape of Vitiligo in the Pura Raza Español Horse: A Genomic Perspective

Vitiligo is a depigmentation autoimmune disorder characterized by the progressive loss of melanocytes leading to the appearance of patchy depigmentation of the skin. The presence of vitiligo in horses is greater in those with grey coats. The aim of this study was therefore to perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify genomic regions and putative candidate loci associated with vitiligo depigmentation and susceptibility in the Pura Raza Español population. For this purpose, we performed a wssGBLUP (weighted single step genomic best linear unbiased prediction) using data from a total of 2359 animals genotyped with Affymetrix Axiom™ Equine 670 K and 1346 with Equine GeneSeek Genomic Profiler™ (GGP) Array V5. A total of 60,136 SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) present on the 32 chromosomes from the consensus dataset after quality control were employed for the analysis. Vitiligo-like depigmentation was phenotyped by visual inspection of the different affected areas (eyes, mouth, nostrils) and was classified into nine categories with three degrees of severity (absent, slight, and severe). We identified one significant genomic region for vitiligo around the eyes, eight significant genomic regions for vitiligo around the mouth, and seven significant genomic regions for vitiligo around the nostrils, which explained the highest percentage of variance. These significant genomic regions contained candidate genes related to melanocytes, skin, immune system, tumour suppression, metastasis, and cutaneous carcinoma. These findings enable us to implement selective breeding strategies to decrease the incidence of vitiligo and to elucidate the genetic architecture underlying vitiligo in horses as well as the molecular mechanisms involved in the disease's development. However, further studies are needed to better understand this skin disorder in horses.