American scientists have recently completed the genetic decoding of a Boxer mix dog named Tasha. This breakthrough not only clarifies the differences between wild dogs and poodles but also sheds light on conditions such as bone cancer, blindness, and epilepsy, which are critical for combating diseases in humans.
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Dog Tasha |
In the British journal Nature, scientists reported that the history of this hunting dog species “may date back at least 15,000 years, potentially as far as 100,000 years ago, as ancestors of the gray wolf in Asia.”
“Dogs have evolved in a reciprocal relationship with humans, sharing habitats and food sources,” the scientists stated.
“Decoding the dog genome makes it 50 times easier to identify the genes associated with many diseases,” said Dr. Eric Lander, a genetic research expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, during a press conference.
The research team arranged 2.4 billion base pairs in Tasha’s DNA, resulting in 39 pairs of chromosomes, while humans have only 23 pairs of chromosomes.
These genes distinguish certain large dog breeds from smaller ones, differentiate long-muzzled breeds from short-muzzled ones, and influence some breeds’ predisposition to specific diseases. This enhances biomedical and evolutionary research in laboratories.
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