Ann Trommershausen Bowling was born the only child of Claire Bowen and William Ernest Trommershausen in Portland, Oregon, on 1 June 1943. The family later moved to Boulder, Colorado. She attended Boulder High School and was the Valedictorian of her class in 1961. Ann first expressed a love for horses in Boulder through training her half-Arabian mare as a mountain riding horse. The plan to breed the mare when Ann left college ultimately led the Trommershausens to an Arabian horse breeding program and Ann to a brilliant career in horse genetics. She was attracted to Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, not just by its academic reputation but also because the school offered an equestrian program. Four years later she received her AB degree from Carleton College and graduated magna cum laude with distinction in biology.She came to the University of California at Davis to study genetics with the renowned G. Ledyard Stebbins. In 1969 she earned her PhD and published her dissertation entitled `A Morphological, Histological and Biochemical Study of the Tomato Mutant Cur‘. Her rigorous approach to research was further refined under the guidance of Professor Stebbins. Her exceptional academic achievements were recognized with membership to several honor societies: Mortar Board, Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Xi.Within a week after receiving her PhD, Dr Bowling took a position as Assistant Professor at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, California. She taught courses in genetics, microbiology, molecular biology, cell physiology, plant physiology and a special course in biology for non-majors. Despite a very full teaching schedule Dr Bowling kept her horse and found time to ride. She was an active participant in trail riding and show ring competition. It was also during this time that she wrote her first paper on horse genetics. This report on the inheritance of chin spot markings in horses was published in The Journal of Heredity in 1972.In 1973, Dr Bowling returned to Davis, California, and joined the faculty of the University of California. She was recruited by Professor Clyde Stormont who was then the Director of the Serology Laboratory, a self-supporting unit in the School of Veterinary Medicine primarily involved in providing animal identification and parentage testing through analysis of blood protein polymorphisms. Dr Bowling was initially brought in to develop and integrate a program in animal cytogenetics. Her duties grew to include the supervision of the day-to-day operation of the laboratory and she had a very significant role in developing and setting the highest standards for all laboratory services. In addition, she was responsible for the final analysis of horse parentage results. The Serology Laboratory is now known as the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory and she served her final years as the Executive Associate Director for the laboratory.In 1981, Dr Bowling was appointed to the faculty of the School of Veterinary Medicine, in what later became the Department of Population Health and Reproduction. She served and chaired many faculty committees in areas including the library, admissions, and special admissions. Many colleagues came to know her as an informed, willing, active and thorough participant. She advanced to the rank of Adjunct Full Professor in 1988 and was in the process of becoming a tenured Professor at the time of her death.Dr Bowling lectured, taught or led courses in a wide variety of topics. The common theme was the importance of using sound genetic principles in the production of healthy animals, especially horses. She lectured in physiology, reproduction, clinical immunology, general genetics, and cytogenetics. Dr Bowling was a member of the Genetics Graduate Group, was the major professor of eight graduate students and also served on many thesis and examination committees. Always a proponent of the value of teaching genetics, she strongly advocated expansion of genetics in the curriculum for veterinary students.Along with demanding obligation to service, consultation and teaching she managed to maintain a productive research program. Dr Bowling played a significant part in the development of the horse genome map and was a major contributor to this work before a concerted effort was established. She contributed in a variety of ways, including her early work in blood protein polymorphisms, definition of linkage groups, equine cytogenetics, physical mapping, and synteny assignments. She is the author or co-author of 93 peer-reviewed research publications on genetics of domestic, feral and zoo equids, dogs, goats and camelids.She recognized very early the importance of constructing reference families to better understand the genetic basis of diseases and traits of interests. She put forward a visionary plan to generate such families to study cerebellar disease in Arabian horses and various horse coat color. One project led to the eventual discovery of the causal mutation for the over-coat color pattern which she characterized to be a dominant pattern gene with homozygous lethal effects.Throughout her career, Dr Bowling was a sought-after author, lecturer and consultant. She wrote 12 book chapters and is the author of the textbook Horse Genetics and co-editor of The Genetics of the Horse. Internationally recognized as the premier horse geneticist she was invited to present many plenary lectures. She was a valued consultant to horse registries, owners, breeders and veterinarians throughout the world. Her strong scientific reputation was such that she was often asked to provide expert testimony in court cases involving horse genetics.Herself a breeder of horses, Dr Bowling always made her abundant knowledge and expertise available to the public and assisted owners and breeders in general production of healthy animals. She addressed many topics paramount of which were the potential loss of genetic diversity and the production of affected offspring through uninformed breeding decisions. Of particular interest to breeders was her knowledge and unparalleled expertise on coat colour genetics.A unique achievement was her reconstruction of the Przewalski’s horse extended pedigree at the Askania Nova breeding facility in Ukraine, based on blood groups, protein and microsatellite types, and mitochondrial DNA sequences. Similarly, a pedigree-based study of mitochondrial DNA variation in the Arabian horse made it possible to answer pedigree questions. This study has contributed to a new understanding of the Arabian breed’s structure.Dr Bowling chaired the Equine Technical committee of the National Animal Genome Research Program and was a reviewer for the grant programs of the USDA/NRICGP, Arabian Horse Registry, Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and American Kennel Club. Dr Bowling was an associate editor of The Journal of Heredity, a member of the Journal Consultants Board of Equine Practice, and an ad hoc reviewer in 12 scientific journals. Since joining the International Society of Animal Genetics (ISAG) in 1974, she has served and chaired several committees of ISAG, most notably her active participation and leadership in the standardization of genetic typing methods, procedures and nomenclature.Dr Bowling was married in 1981 to Michael Bowling, himself a geneticist and writer. Their daughter, Lydia Bowling, is attending her freshman year at University of California in Santa Barbara. They operated an Arabian breeding program at their farm in Davis, the New Albion Stud. The program included over 40 of their own horses and emphasized the breed’s traditional physical and soundness qualities. In 2000, a horse produced from their breeding program won the prestigious Tevis Cup, by finishing first on the Western States Hundred Miles ride, a severe test of endurance for both horse and rider over varied and demanding terrain through the Sierra Nevada.Ann Trommershausen Bowling, mentor, colleague and dear friend died unexpectedly from a series of brain hemorrhages on 8 December 2000. She left a professional legacy of devoted, thorough, and passionate investigation into horse genetics that will continue to influence future work in this area.The Ann T. Bowling Scholarship for Equine Genetics was established to honor the memory of Dr Bowling. Thanks to generous public and industry support, the fund is now managed as an endowment. It is awarded annually to veterinary medicine or graduate students at the University of California – Davis, who have demonstrated interest in horse genetics.April 2002 issue of Animal Genetics (volume 33, issue 2)submitted by John Vankat
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