Friday, May 30, 2008

Owners resemble their pets more than they think


For centuries our canine companions have been domesticated by humans. They’ve proved invaluable to us in our domestic as well as in our working lives. They’ve been used cross culturally for hunting, protection, transport, even food and fashion; but more recently researchers have been looking at our hairy friends a little more closely. A group of French scientists, for example, have for years provided canine genomic resources to aid in medicine. These genomic resources go towards further understanding the genetic bases of traits and genetic diseases in canines so that they may be used as models to study equivalent human traits. The fact that 75% of human genes have a canine equivalent may make you look at your loving companion a little more closely as she chases her playmates in the dog park, and wonder how many of them share medical conditions with their owners: conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes or cancer. Sharing knowledge on genomics can be used so that both the canine and the human medical discourses may benefit. With mutual information exchange, knowledge of our canine friends and their conditions will help us to live longer and healthier lives as well as assisting us in helping them to live longer and healthier lives alongside us.

Primary resource:
http://apps.isiknowledge.com.ezproxy.library.uq.edu.au/full_record.do?product=WOS&search_mode=GeneralSearch&qid=2&SID=1Dp@E4h@7L4O921O4cA&page=1&doc=7
Guaguere, A. C., Thomas A, et al. 2007. Identification of genes involved in genodermatoses: Example of naso-plantar Keratodermia in the French breed Dogue de Bordeaux. Bulletin de l’académie vétérinaire de France 160 (3) 245-250.

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