Dogs in Science again: Coat Variation in the Domestic Dog is Governed by Variants in Three Genes
Science vol. 326, 10/2/2009
Elaine Ostrander again (I gather that she's kinda the Top Dog in canine genomics right now; her lab also published the recent paper on the leg-dwarfing FGF4 gene).
Abstract: Coat color and type are essential characteristics of domestic dog breeds. Although the genetic basis of coat color has been well characterized, relatively little is known about the genes influencing coat growth pattern, length, and curl. We performed genome-wide association studies of more than 1000 dogs from 80 domestic breeds to identify genes associated with canine fur phenotypes. Taking advantage of both inter- and intrabreed variability, we identified distinct mutations in three genes, RSPO2, FGF5, and KRT71 (encoding R-spondin–2, fibroblast growth factor–5, and keratin-71, respectively), that together account for most coat phenotypes in purebred dogs in the United States. Thus, an array of varied and seemingly complex phenotypes can be reduced to the combinatorial effects of only a few genes.
They classified the coat types of domestic dogs into 7 categories, and found single mutations/variants in only three genes that, in combination, account for all of them. These mutations are not found in grey wolves or short-haired dogs (who have the ancestral genotypes).
They do this stuff with GWAs -- Genome-Wide-Association Studies -- using the Affymetrix Canine SNP chip. A SNP is a Single-Nucleotide-Polymorphism, a one-base variation that can be used as a genetic marker on the chromosome. They make copies of these, spot thousands of them onto a chip in nearly microscopic quantities, you wash your chip with the DNA of your subject, and if your subject's DNA matches the SNP, it sticks to it, that spot lights up fluorescently, and the computer reads it out when you stick the chip into the machine. Hey, I graduated from college in 1974, and if anybody'd told me they'd be doing something like this someday, I'd have asked them if they had any more of that good stuff they were smokin'. Not even the science fiction writers hinted at this stuff.
The article includes the remarkable statement that "Because most breeds likely originated within the past 200 years... (!) (E.C.Ash, "Dogs: Their History and Development" 1927)
You breeder types interested in current genomics might be interested in going to the Science website Search on Ostrander
I don't think it's free; I work at U. of Washington so I can read the full text at work.
A lot of hot stuff is going on in canine genomics.
Elaine Ostrander again (I gather that she's kinda the Top Dog in canine genomics right now; her lab also published the recent paper on the leg-dwarfing FGF4 gene).
Abstract: Coat color and type are essential characteristics of domestic dog breeds. Although the genetic basis of coat color has been well characterized, relatively little is known about the genes influencing coat growth pattern, length, and curl. We performed genome-wide association studies of more than 1000 dogs from 80 domestic breeds to identify genes associated with canine fur phenotypes. Taking advantage of both inter- and intrabreed variability, we identified distinct mutations in three genes, RSPO2, FGF5, and KRT71 (encoding R-spondin–2, fibroblast growth factor–5, and keratin-71, respectively), that together account for most coat phenotypes in purebred dogs in the United States. Thus, an array of varied and seemingly complex phenotypes can be reduced to the combinatorial effects of only a few genes.
They classified the coat types of domestic dogs into 7 categories, and found single mutations/variants in only three genes that, in combination, account for all of them. These mutations are not found in grey wolves or short-haired dogs (who have the ancestral genotypes).
They do this stuff with GWAs -- Genome-Wide-Association Studies -- using the Affymetrix Canine SNP chip. A SNP is a Single-Nucleotide-Polymorphism, a one-base variation that can be used as a genetic marker on the chromosome. They make copies of these, spot thousands of them onto a chip in nearly microscopic quantities, you wash your chip with the DNA of your subject, and if your subject's DNA matches the SNP, it sticks to it, that spot lights up fluorescently, and the computer reads it out when you stick the chip into the machine. Hey, I graduated from college in 1974, and if anybody'd told me they'd be doing something like this someday, I'd have asked them if they had any more of that good stuff they were smokin'. Not even the science fiction writers hinted at this stuff.
The article includes the remarkable statement that "Because most breeds likely originated within the past 200 years... (!) (E.C.Ash, "Dogs: Their History and Development" 1927)
You breeder types interested in current genomics might be interested in going to the Science website Search on Ostrander
I don't think it's free; I work at U. of Washington so I can read the full text at work.
A lot of hot stuff is going on in canine genomics.
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