Center for Zoonoses Research at the University of Illinois
Veterinary Student Summer Training Program
2008 Mentor Profile
Matt Stewart
Assistant Professor, Director of Research & Graduate Studies
Veterinary Clinical Medicine
Title
Project Description:
The summer project in our lab will focus on genetic polymorphisms in the "Chondroitin sulfate" domain of the equine aggrecan gene. We have recently cloned the equine aggrecan coding sequence and it is apparent that there are considerable inter-individual differences in the number of repetitive motifs in the CS-binding domain of the protein. These differences affect the extent to which the protein can bind water and effect the resistance of articular cartilage to compressive loads. We plan to compare the CS domain coding variability in, and between, DNA samples collected from draught horses and miniature horses, to determine whether there has been an evolutionary selection for increased loading capacity in the genome of heavy breed horses and/or a loss of selection for this characteristic in miniature horses.
Dr. Stewart's biosketch page
View a video about Dr. Stewart's current research