With Elaine A. Ostrander, of the National Human Genome Research Institute.
In last few centuries subpopulations of dogs have developed into closed populations as a result of differential selection for traits associated with both behavior and appearance. This practice, coupled with small numbers of founders for many breeds and population bottlenecks has generated a population that is ideal for mapping genes underlying complex traits.
The approximately 165 domestic US dogs breeds display tremendous morphologic variation, making them an appealing model for the identification of genetic regulators of vertebrate shape and development. We have genotyped over 1000 dogs representing 85 domestic breeds to generate data on over 60,000 informative SNPs per dog. This, combined with morphometric data has allowed us to map and sequence loci that control various features of breed-specific traits related to shape and size. In this seminar we will summarize our work on body size, leg length and skull shape, providing new insights into the ways in which genes work together to create a continuum of variation across dog breeds. We will also talk about predisposition to specific disease in dogs and summarize our recent findings on breed specific cancers.
