生物谷Bioon.com 訊 毋庸置疑,，不同品種的狗身體形狀是不一樣的,。但你可能還沒有意識到，研究狗的基因組或有助于改善人類的健康,。因此,，當你下一次再深情注視著狗狗的眼睛或者在它們耳朵后面抓癢的時候,，留意一下它們鼻子的長度或者身體的大小。盡管這些性狀在不同的品種中有很大的變化,，但研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)其實這些差異只是由少數(shù)幾個基因區(qū)域決定的,。
研究人員表示，探索不同品種的狗之間的遺傳差異或最終能幫助我們理解人類的生物醫(yī)學特性,，比如身高,、頭發(fā)顏色、體重等,，這些性狀通常受我們體內成百上千不同基因組成的網絡影響,。而識別狗身上的那些含有遺傳"開關"的重要區(qū)域，將為我們找到影響人類健康的變異提供重要線索,。
這項研究是至今為止關于狗的最全面的遺傳學分析,，研究人員對900多只狗進行了基因分型，并評估了將近60種特定的身體性狀,，結果發(fā)現(xiàn)少數(shù)的基因區(qū)域就決定了大部分狗的外觀,。
斯坦福大學遺傳學教授Carlos Bustamante表示："通過對狗的基因組分析，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)只有6或7個位點是必需的,，它們就能解釋80%左右的差異,，比如不同品種狗的升高和體重變化。而在人類中,，這些性狀不是由數(shù)百甚至成千的變異所控制的,。"
這項研究結果發(fā)布在8月10日的PLoS Biology雜志上。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原文出處：
PLoS Biol doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000451
A Simple Genetic Architecture Underlies Morphological Variation in Dogs
Adam R. Boyko1,2#, Pascale Quignon3#, Lin Li2#, Jeffrey J. Schoenebeck3, Jeremiah D. Degenhardt2, Kirk E. Lohmueller2, Keyan Zhao1,2, Abra Brisbin2, Heidi G. Parker3, Bridgett M. vonHoldt4, Michele Cargill5, Adam Auton2, Andy Reynolds2, Abdel G. Elkahloun3, Marta Castelhano6, Dana S. Mosher3, Nathan B. Sutter2,6, Gary S. Johnson7, John Novembre4, Melissa J. Hubisz2, Adam Siepel2, Robert K. Wayne4, Carlos D. Bustamante1,2?*, Elaine A. Ostrander3?*
1 Department of Genetics, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, California, United States of America, 2 Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America, 3 Cancer Genetic Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America, 4 Department of Ecology and Environmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America, 5 Affymetrix Corporation, Santa Clara, California, United States of America, 6 Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America, 7 Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, United States of America
Domestic dogs exhibit tremendous phenotypic diversity, including a greater variation in body size than any other terrestrial mammal. Here, we generate a high density map of canine genetic variation by genotyping 915 dogs from 80 domestic dog breeds, 83 wild canids, and 10 outbred African shelter dogs across 60,968 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Coupling this genomic resource with external measurements from breed standards and individuals as well as skeletal measurements from museum specimens, we identify 51 regions of the dog genome associated with phenotypic variation among breeds in 57 traits. The complex traits include average breed body size and external body dimensions and cranial, dental, and long bone shape and size with and without allometric scaling. In contrast to the results from association mapping of quantitative traits in humans and domesticated plants, we find that across dog breeds, a small number of quantitative trait loci (≤3) explain the majority of phenotypic variation for most of the traits we studied. In addition, many genomic regions show signatures of recent selection, with most of the highly differentiated regions being associated with breed-defining traits such as body size, coat characteristics, and ear floppiness. Our results demonstrate the efficacy of mapping multiple traits in the domestic dog using a database of genotyped individuals and highlight the important role human-directed selection has played in altering the genetic architecture of key traits in this important species.
