New genetic research may explain why Fluffy is so fluffy.
A study led by researchers at the National Human Genome Research Institute scanned 1,000 dogs from 80 breeds, looking for genes associated with different hair types: curly, wavy, straight, wiry, long and any combination of these. Their results, published online last week in Science, show that [...]

Tags: dogs, keratin, NHGRI, Ostrander, Science Express

On occasion, the Spittoon departs from its usual mission of bringing you the latest and greatest in human genetics news in order to report on particularly interesting discoveries in other species.  Many times these stories are about dogs and the reason is simple: dogs are awesome.
Well, there is more to it.  In addition to being [...]

Tags: dogs, FGF4, Ostrander, retrogene, Science Express