Chihuahuas, Irish wolfhounds, pit bulls, beagles, greyhounds, and more. Man’s best friend comes in a range of sizes, shapes, and temperaments unmatched by any other mammalian species.
Biologists have now taken a step toward understanding that diversity by conducting a limited, but relatively quick and inexpensive, scan of one dog’s full DNA sequence, or genome.
The data from this scan should ultimately help researchers study the more-than-300 human diseases, such as cancer and epilepsy, that also afflict dogs. The new work has already enabled scientists to compare the mouse, dog, and human genomes.
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