Labradors' coat reveals ancient secret about dog evolution (which has to do with the Arctic)

    Canine crosses share only five different recurring furs, whose genes originated more than two million years ago

    He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

    Hundreds of canine crosses share only five different recurrent furs, the genes of which originated more than two million years ago in the (now extinct) ancestors of dogs and wolves.





    It is surprising the variety of dog breeds that exists today and it is therefore difficult, at times, to believe that very different breeds actually belong to the same species. Recurring patterns in the color of the fur of our four-legged friends are responsible for a rich set of distinctive traits in the various breeds (and in the crosses). And, according to a new study, these variations in fur color are due to genes from a very distant ancestor common to dogs and wolves.

    Dogs and wolves have two different types of pigments in their fur: a black pigment called eumelanin and a yellow one said pheomelanin. The combination of these two pigments produces in the dog the five main color combinations of fur (or phenotypes): dominant yellow, submissive yellow, agouti, black and black back. Within each phenotype, variations are possible due to various factors - such as the position of the 'borders' between the eumelanin and pheomelanin areas, the submissiveness of the pheomelanin pigment, the length and / or curl of the hairs. (see image).

    Labradors' coat reveals ancient secret about dog evolution (which has to do with the Arctic)

    Evolutionary patterns of the various dog breeds (Credits: Nature Ecology and Evolution)

    After sequencing the DNA of ancient dogs and wolves, the researchers found that the production of the yellow pigment is controlled by a particular protein, whose activity is in turn controlled by a gene called ASIP. Mutations in two different areas of this gene lead to fur of different colors. But what surprised scientists is the fact that the ASIP gene has been around for more or less two million years - well before the dog's domestication process, which took place some 30.000 years ago.

    This means that this gene is also shared by the genetic sequence of wolves (which derive from the same ancestors), and this would explain why the same genetic combination that leads to the dominant yellow fur (that of the labrador) is also shared by the white wolf. arctic: lighter colored fur was likely an advantageous adaptation to the cold environment of the Arctic during the ice age period (1,5-2 million years ago), and this adaptation was later 'inherited' by dogs and wolves existing today.



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    Fonte: Nature Ecology and Evolution


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