The identification of the H3K4 trimethylase, PRDM9, as the gene responsible for recombination hotspot localization has provided considerable insight into the mechanisms by which recombination is initiated in mammals. However, uniquely amongst mammals, canids appear to lack a functional version of PRDM9 and may therefore provide a model for understanding recombination that occurs in the absence of PRDM9, and thus how PRDM9 functions to shape the recombination landscape. We have constructed a fine-scale genetic map from patterns of linkage disequilibrium assessed using high-throughput sequence data from 51 free-ranging dogs, Canis lupus familiaris. While broad-scale properties of recombination appear similar to other mammalian species, our fine-scale estimates indicate that canine highly elevated recombination rates are observed in the vicinity of CpG rich regions including gene promoter regions, but show little association with H3K4 trimethylation marks identified in spermatocytes. By comparison to genomic data from the Andean fox, Lycalopex culpaeus, we show that biased gene conversion is a plausible mechanism by which the high CpG content of the dog genome could have occurred. Recombination in mammalian genomes tends to occur within highly localized regions known as recombination hotspots. These hotspots appear to be a ubiquitous feature of mammalian genomes, but tend to not be shared between closely related species despite high levels of DNA sequence similarity. This disparity has been largely explained by the discovery of PRDM9 as the gene responsible for localizing recombination hotspots via recognition and binding to specific DNA motifs. Variation within PRDM9 can lead to changes to the recognized motif, and hence changes to the location of recombination hotspots thought the genome. Multiple studies have shown that PRDM9 is under strong selective pressure, apparently leading to a rapid turnover of hotspot locations between species. However, uniquely amongst mammals, PRDM9 appears to be dysfunctional in dogs and other canids. In this paper, we investigate how the loss of PRDM9 has affected the fine-scale recombination landscape in dogs and contrast this with patterns seen in other species.

Equine recurrent laryngeal neuropathy (RLN) is a bilateral mononeuropathy with an unknown pathogenesis that significantly affects performance in Thoroughbreds. A genetic contribution to the pathogenesis of RLN is suggested by the higher prevalence of the condition in offspring of RLN-affected than unaffected stallions. To better understand RLN pathogenesis and its genetic basis, we performed a genome-wide association (GWAS) of 282 RLN-affected and 268 control Thoroughbreds.