Dog Talk ® (and Kitties Too!)

#973B: Elaine Ostrander, a canine genomics expert, was on the team that sequenced Tasha’s genome, the first purebred dog studied twenty years ago. She and her colleagues at the NIH have been studying the DNA of many dog breeds since then, discovering which genes are responsible for what physical and health characteristics, allowing them to guide dog breeders in making  decisions to avoid naturally occurring diseases, knowledge which is valuable for human disorders, too.