A Breed Apart

The canine genome, mapped in the last few years, holds a lot of promise for improving human health. And that remains the primary focus for the parties conducting the most high profile subsequent research. The genes have been studied in enough detail to discover the predictable, if not obvious: One, yes, specific breeds are similar enough to imply a long history of inbreeding - with the associated prevalence of health problems long known to breeders; and two, clusters of breeds with similar physical characteristics and similar talents are plainly evident.

But this study sheds light on the evolutionary dance we've been having with the dog. There are two main branches of the dog lineage. One, more anciently divergent from (and genetically similar to) wolves, includes Huskies, Malamute, Chow and Basenji. This branch emerged from Asian wolf stock and these creatures would have been very familiar with those bipedial primates spreading across the old world from Africa who were apparently having a lot of success procuring everything they needed. They are well spread across the old world implying there was a thorough "first wave" of successful colonization of human civilization by these creatures after figuring out the trick of symbiosis with us.

The other branch diverged from this group and it contains three clusters, Herders (sheepdogs, collies), Hunters (hounds, retrievers, terriers), and "Mastiff-like" breeds (bulldogs, boxers). Purebreeding began in the 18th Century, at the earliest. The evidence is that these three clusters had separated themselves somewhat well before that, but in the short time we've been hyperspecializing the breeds, the DNA signature now clearly shows from which breed a sample comes.

Other findings: Dogs came with people across the bering straits; no new world wolves were 'domesticated.' The Chihuahua makes no sense and is not clustered with any other dog. And the Norwegian Elkhound, which looks very much like a wolf, is apparently a modern breed that has been selected over time to share many physical characteristics of wolves; "closing the loop" so-to-speak.

Fascinating stuff, but quite honestly... Mutts are the best