New study of dogs' genes may aid human research
Aug. 26, 2002

By SARAH GOFORTH
Knight Ridder Newspapers

It’s a rare scientist who would name a research project after the family pet, but for Dr. Gordon Lark, it seemed the natural thing to do.

That’s because the geneticist’s work would have been dramatically different if not for Georgie, the Lark family dog — and a disease that plagues his breed. In a study of hundreds of dogs like Georgie, Lark and his research team have described how breeds from a common ancestor may have diverged so dramatically in a short amount of time.

The new research describes the genetic elements that affect bone formation in dogs. Using DNA from blood samples, along with X-rays and meticulous pedigrees from 330 dogs of the same breed, the University of Utah’s Lark and his collaborators found genes that influence the growth and development of the canine skeleton.

The findings, published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that certain breeds of dogs may be useful models for geneticists with a range of interests — from evolution to human disease.

Lark’s research team identified traits, such as bone size and shape, that vary along a continuum among different dogs of the breed.

The genes that influence these traits are part of a complex network: Some genes stimulate bone growth in one area while inhibiting it in another. To simplify things, Lark and his group considered the skeletal frame as a series of parts — traits — to be quantified and examined.

Each of these traits that govern skeletal form, Lark says, is composed of many smaller traits. “You could say that the trait of operating a car is composed of separate traits, like steering, operating the clutch, and checking the rearview mirror,” he says. A larger trait, like the overall ability to drive a car, might be something like jaw size. The smaller traits that make it up, in this case, would involve individual bone thickness and length.