Genetic enigma solved: Inheritance of coat color patterns in dogs

Arctic Wolf (Canis lupus arctos) in the Lüneburg Heath wildlife park, Germany. The white coat color is caused by the same genetic variant that leads to the dominant yellow color in dogs. Quartl / Wikicommons An international team of researchers including scientists from the Institute of Genetics of the University of Bern has unraveled the enigma of inheritance of coat color patterns in dogs. The researchers discovered that a genetic variant responsible for a very light coat in dogs and wolves originated more than two million years ago in a now extinct relative of the modern wolf. The inheritance of several coat color patterns in dogs has been controversially debated for decades. Researchers including Tosso Leeb from the Institute of Genetics of the University of Bern have now finally been able to solve the puzzle. Not only did they clarify how the coat color patterns are genetically controlled, but the researchers also discovered that the light coat color in white arctic wolves and many modern dogs is due to a genetic variant originating in a species that went extinct a long time ago.