Dog genes tell surprising tales: A story of canine morpholo
Date:
Monday, March 6, 2017 16:00 - 17:15
Speaker:
Elaine Ostrander (National Institutes of Health)
Location:
Raiffeisen Lecture Hall, Central Building
Series:
Institute colloquium
Host:
Beatriz Vicoso
Contact:
ELLER Arinya
The Ostrander lab seeks to understand disease susceptibility, behavior, and morphologic variation that occur across domestic dog breeds. Working with dog owners, breeders and the American Kennel Club, the lab collects DNA samples from dogs of varying phenotypes and applies the most sophisticated of genomic technologies to understand variation in behavior, morphology and disease susceptibility across domestic dog breeds. This information inevitably helps us understand the genetic underpinnings of the same or similar phenotypes in humans, highlighting mutations, genes or pathways important to developmental and disease processes. Dogs, are ideal for such studies since each dog breed represented an isolated and relatively pure breeding population, dog families are largermuch more so then humans, and dog owners ensure the health of their pets by vigilant screening on the part of a highly motivated veterinary community. This presentation will summarize some of the morphologic phenotypes the Ostrander lab has and is pursing and the large resources the lab is developing for the research community to tackle those questions. We will also discuss origins of dog breeds and how canine populations are unique from those of other domestic mammals and the application of this data to understanding breed specific disorders.