马属(Equus)动物的祖先大约在5500万年前出现,经过持续分化形成现今的马、驴和斑马,统称马属动物。马作为家畜中的重要一员,是推动人类文明发展的载体,在人类的饮食、战争、农耕、运输和娱乐等领域做出了巨大贡献。然而,人类为了满足需求,或多或少影响着马的进化方向,从而在长时间自然和人工选择过程中形成了多种独具特色性状的不同马种。驴和骡在全球的存栏量也较多,在人类的生产和生活中起到的作用同样不可忽视,不但为人类提供了生产力而且还提供了食物和营养保健品。可见,马属动物对人类的重要性。近年来,高通量测序技术和生物信息学分析方法被广泛运用于家畜的遗传学研究。人们利用高通量测序手段探索马属动物在进化过程中的种群变化历史,解析形成独特性状的分子机制,为其育种工作提供有效的数据支持。本文综述了马属动物全基因组高通量测序的研究进展,以及利用该技术在马属动物的进化历史和功能基因挖掘研究领域所取得的成就,以期今后对马属动物的深入研究、产业开发和利用等方面提供参考信息。

The ancestors of the Equus lived on earth about 55 million years ago, and then they diverged and evolved into modern horses, donkeys and zebras. Equus is indispensable for human lives. Horses are key members of the livestock, domesticated for farming, transportation, recreation as well as food supply and warfare, thereby enhancing the development of human civilization. In the meantime, humans also influence horses’ evolution to meet their own demands, resulting in lots of different horse breeds with specific traits after a prolonged natural and artificial selection. Besides horses, donkeys and mules in the Equus genus also benefit human lives, providing essential work force and also food and nutrition products. The advent of the high-throughput sequencing technologies and bioinformatics analysis has transformed the genetics research of the livestock. In this review, we summarize research progress in the whole genome of Equus by using high-throughput sequencing technologies. Moreover, we describe the achievements on evolution history and functional gene research of Equus using the technology. We look forward to providing further insights for better industrialization and utilization of Equus.