Turkish Dogs - particularly Anatolian Shepherd Dogs

An article from October 2007 at Newsweek discusses the importance of a balance of microbes in our lives and their importance in our genetic make up and immune systems.

While this posting isn't about dogs, many of the basic ideas below do carry between species.

". . . What we need is more exposure to the good microbes, and the job of medicine in the years to come will be sorting out the good microbes from the bad."

"That's the goal of the Human Microbiome Project, a five-year multinational study that its advocates say could tell us almost as much about life as the recently completed work of sequencing the human genome. One puzzling result of the Human Genome Project was the paltry number of genes it found—about 20,000, which is only as many as it takes to make a fruit fly. Now some researchers think some of the "missing" genes may be found in the teeming populations of microbes we host." See more...

I'm not so sure we can really put all bugs into black and white categories, but the reality beyond doubt to me, is that we do need a balance of exposure to microbes. The whole idea probably doesn't seem all that alien to most, but germ exposure is probably far more important than most people think. Take a look some of Mike Johnson's musings on gut flora at Modern Dragons for another take on this perspective. I especially thought the bit about the fruit fly having another organism fused to its genome as particularly interesting examples of evolution. Fruit flies as natural genetically modified organisms? (having DNA of another species within) We know that cud chewing animals depend on the organisms in their gut which help them digest plant sources. Do they have bacterial genetic components that have become part of their genome? What about us? Our dogs? To what extent are we genetically modified in this way?

Another thing to look into regarding environmental influence on our genes is Comet Tail analysis, which gives some indication of how environment in the form of foods, drugs, pollution, and even FDA approved (Generally Recognized as Safe, GRAS) additives in our consumables affect the integrity of DNA in specific organs. Here's an example of comet tail analysis regarding the effect of phthalate on human sperm. How much of that sperm is still viable? I'm sure some of it may be damaged enough to die, but how much of it will bring new or damaging genetic information to a baby?

Pic at left from MSNBC article linked below - from Oct 2004 Nature.
I think that a lot of this is very important but the main thing to take away from all this is that our genes are not hard coded functional entities. They are dynamic and responsive to the environment. Why we don't have considerably more genes than a fruit fly probably has more to do with the complexities of the bulk of genetic exchange which occurs in our bodies through our lives, with our guts providing us with much of our immune function. Think of all the junk and medication that exert potential effect on DNA in our gut. They affect metabolism and make unknown changes to our normal flora. Speaking of normal flora, another favorite bookmark I often share is the fermentation page of Healing Crow which offers a lot of food for thought in the care of our normal flora and also discusses its importance.

Our genes seem to function in a manner similar to software in a computer. The ability of our genetic software to interpret internal and environmental data, to rebound from trauma and stress, and to find resources in order to generate pathways in order to survive, or simply to fail, are complicated and dynamic adaptations.

I'm baffled by this quote right at the end of this MSNBC article last year. Lander said he’s not concerned that the number of human genes has turned out to be so limited. “To the contrary, I think it’s great news,” he said, “because what it means is we already know a lot about most human genes.” I think I'll just chalk it up to an awkward closing to the article.

While we do have clear understanding of the exact number of chromosomes there are in different species, the actual numbers of different genes counted per species will continue to change. In part, due to refinement in how and which genes are counted, and how genes which are 'countable' are defined. (protein coding only? microRNA and apparently meaningless SNPs, etc - I think a lot of what has been called junk DNA may make some differences in disease resistance or survival as it relates to genetic diversity, but what do I know?) See Human Genome Project Information.

Labels: genetics, Science

This report from University of Minnesota astronomers (UofM link of press release) heralds discovery of "an enormous hole in the Universe, nearly a billion light-years across, empty of both normal matter such as stars, galaxies and gas, as well as mysterious, unseen “dark matter.” While earlier studies have shown holes, or voids, in the large-scale structure of the Universe, this new discovery dwarfs them all."

The 'bullhorn' illustration at the top is from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory website. The black 'nucleus' in the bull horn image is the big hole. The graphic gives perspective on how the information from radio waves of the earthbound VLA Sky Survey (seen in blue square above) combined with microwave energy reported (from space by) the WMAP Spacecraft (the orange square) have both, using different perspectives, helped to locate this enormous hole devoid of any dust/matter in our universe.

A Void Within the Void -- Berardelli 2007 (824): 1 -- ScienceNOW-

A team from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, had been studying data from the Very Large Array Sky Survey, which is mapping the entire universe with radio waves. The team members focused on one part of the survey where the temperature of the CMB is lower than normal [the blue gap on the psychedelic looking pic]. This cooling is significant because interactions with both visible and dark matter warm the CMB slightly, and so the team suspected that matter [in the cold spot] was absent.

[NOTE: CMB is Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation - source WMAP NASA site:

"The CMB radiation was emitted only a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang, long before stars or galaxies ever existed. Thus, by studying the detailed physical properties of the radiation, we can learn about conditions in the universe on very large scales, since the radiation we see today has traveled over such a large distance, and at very early times."]

Further observations of the zone, located between 6 billion and 10 billion light-years away, revealed it to be not only devoid of galaxies but also about a billion light-years wide, the team will report in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal. "What we're suggesting is that there is no matter in this void, either normal or dark," says radio astronomer and co-author Lawrence Rudnick.

The pie chart shows the generally accepted proportions of three components of our universe.
EDIT/added - Aug 31 - Pie chart above and previous cylindrical image are from the previously mentioned WMAP site where interesting graphics and other info can be found. Content of the Universe-WMAP data reveals that its contents include 4% atoms, the building blocks of stars and planets. Dark matter comprises 22% of the universe. This matter, different from atoms, does not emit or absorb light. It has only been detected indirectly by its gravity. 74% of the Universe, is composed of "dark energy", that acts as a sort of an anti-gravity. This energy, distinct from dark matter, is responsible for the present-day acceleration of the universal expansion.

Concluding that the zone is free of dark matter might be premature, cautions astrophysicist Harvey Tananbaum of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Making that determination is difficult and will require confirmation, he says. Meanwhile, cosmologist Paul Davies of Arizona State University in Tempe says the discovery is "potentially very important" for testing theories about the very early universe. The potential deviation from the inflation model is "a tantalizing pointer to some new physics at the dawn of existence."

To read more about current study of the Universe and the BIG BANG theory as these have been modified with recent information from WMAP, go here.

A funny quote from Wired's version of this story: Retired NASA astronomer Steve Maran said of the discovery: "This is incredibly important for something where there is nothing to it." :D




Now for something a little more down to earth.
Science News has an article on a virus that seems to have some correlation with obesity in some people.

Magdalena Pasarica of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, who led the new work, stresses that obesity has many causes, including genetic factors, overeating, and a sedentary lifestyle. In some people, however, adenovirus-36 may be the culprit, she says. Adenoviruses cause colds, but adenovirus-36, apparently, does more.

In a 2005 study of 502 obese and normal-weight people, researchers reported that 30 percent of the obese group showed signs of previous adenovirus-36 infection, while only 11 percent of the lean group did. ...see Science News article above

I think this has the potential to tie in very easily (so far) with issues of epigenetics/nutrigenetics. The genetic factor seems to be that when certain triggers reach a threshold in individuals, who have lost certain protective alleles (which can make them a genetic variant), various degenerative cascades have the potential to happen in that population. A very interesting article I have bookmarked from The Scientist tends to go offline occasionally, so here is cache link to --

Eat Your Way To Better DNA Why what your grandmother ate while pregnant with your mother might affect your children's health, and other findings from the growing field of nutrigenomics. By KATE TRAVIS

And next this piece from The Scientist is interesting to me, has to do with certain receptors of bacteria being sensitive to light, and this factor having something to do with changes in potential virulence.

It actually makes a lot of sense since it seems many living organisms from plants and even larger complex animals have responses to various wavelengths of light in our environment.

I never gave much thought to lighting for the bugs we grew in the various incubators and our tests were pretty standardized anyway, growing critters that preferred dark places in humans. Even the few incubators with small clear panels at the door seemed minutely important to me, just a way to see how full an incubator might be, and what might be in there without opening the door and letting the warm air out. We always had the lights off in microbiology lab if no one were in there doing stuff anyway. The heat in a laboratory in general can get pretty stuffy due to all the fridges, centrifuges, incubators and analyzers, etc. You can't use a fan due to potential biohazardous aerosol. Air conditioning is nice but is not always very efficient in rooms full of machinery.

EDIT: 25 Aug - Yeegads, had lots of trouble with internet connection lately, add on Blogger/FTP has been temperamental for the past day. grrrr...

Labels: genetics, micro, NASA, Science

A Bully Whippet - Above, this is Wendy. She has two copies of a double muscling phenotype.


A racing whippet

Whippets are sometimes used in racing and breeders of these racing whippets found that some successful racing dogs with increased muscling produced progeny with this muscling trait and similar racing success. However, if two carriers of this trait were bred together, these dogs sometimes produced heavily muscled dogs that gave the whippets a "bully" appearance such as that which Wendy has in the top photo.


Chart I found on The New York Times site. See the whole article at the link at the bottom of this post-

Breeders got together and tested both affected and unaffected dogs to try and find the gene causing these distinctions. It has been found that the wild-type whippet in this case meaning the normal whippet, did not have a copy of this mutation that affects muscling. Intermediate affected dogs, successful racers with more muscling than average, had one copy of this mutated gene. Bully whippets all had a double copy of the gene.


Some info from the study below...

A Mutation in the Myostatin Gene Increases Muscle Mass and Enhances Racing Performance in Heterozygote Dogs Dana S. Mosher, Pascale Quignon, Carlos D. Bustamante, Nathan B. Sutter, Cathryn S. Mellersh, Heidi G. Parker, Elaine A. Ostrander
National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America, Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, United States of America, Animal Health Trust, Center for Preventive Medicine, Newmarket, United Kingdom

Double muscling is a trait previously described in several mammalian species including cattle and sheep and is caused by mutations in the myostatin (MSTN) gene (previously referred to as GDF8). Here we describe a new mutation in MSTN found in the whippet dog breed that results in a double-muscled phenotype known as the “bully” whippet. Individuals with this phenotype carry two copies of a two-base-pair deletion in the third exon of MSTN leading to a premature stop codon at amino acid 313. Individuals carrying only one copy of the mutation are, on average, more muscular than wild-type individuals (p = 7.43 × 10⁻⁶; Kruskal-Wallis Test) and are significantly faster than individuals carrying the wild-type genotype in competitive racing events (Kendall's nonparametric measure, τ = 0.3619; p ≈ 0.00028). These results highlight the utility of performance-enhancing polymorphisms, marking the first time a mutation in MSTN has been quantitatively linked to increased athletic performance.

Introduction
The wide variety of behaviors and morphological types exhibited among dog breeds and the overall low genetic diversity within each breed make the dog an excellent genetic system for mapping traits of interest. Recently, owners of whippets, an established racing-dog breed, have reported a phenotype of heavy muscling occurring within the breed (http://www.k9community.co.uk/forums). The typical whippet is similar in conformation to the greyhound, a medium-sized sighthound, weighing about 9 kg and characterized by a slim build, long neck, small head, and pointed snout. Heavily muscled dogs, termed “bully” whippets by breeders, have broad chests and unusually well-developed leg and neck musculature. “Bully” whippets are easily distinguished from their normal littermates based on physical appearance alone. Owners report that “bully” whippets do not have any health abnormalities other than muscle cramping in the shoulder and thigh. However, the dogs are often euthanized at an early age as they do not conform to the American Kennel Club breed standard. In addition, about 50% of “bully” whippets have a distinctive overbite. [see pic on right]

To see the paper on this study, go here.


Normal whippet - "wild type"


Intermediate whippet - One copy of the mutation


Bully whippet - Two copies of the mutation, 50% have overshot muzzle

It is interesting that half of the Bully Whippets have the upper mandible so long as it is.


Related article:
As Breeders Test DNA, Dogs Become Guinea Pigs - New York Times

Labels: genetics

According to the photo database, that's a Chihuahua(?) and an Irish Wolfhound

Researchers identify gene involved in dog size (Check out the article)

"An international team led by researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has identified a genetic variant that is a major contributor to small size in dogs. The findings appear in the April 6, 2007 issue of the journal Science.

“The identification and characterization of a key genetic variant that accounts for differences in dog size is particularly exciting because the underlying gene is present in all dogs and other diverse species, including humans,” said Eric Green, M.D., Ph.D., scientific director of the NHGRI Division of Intramural Research. “Discoveries like this illustrate the exciting promise of genomics research for understanding the inheritance of a wide range of traits, including those that have an impact on health and disease.”"

Labels: genetics

Tails up! Darth waiting for little sister, Spot, to make up her mind and step into the dog house.
Note her tail is up and is around his left ear. :)
Wednesday, an almost sunny day outside, a great day to get them introduced to these new things. (Wednesday: increasing overcast and windy, with sprinkles later. But Thursday -- Rain!)

They are growing by the hour it seems. Their personalities are emerging now. Several pups seem to be on one or any of the other sides of the personality continuum now. The small girl "Spot" tends to be most alert and reactive and comes moving quickly to see about any new thing she sees or hears, pretty bold, not much backing away there. The boys generally seem pretty laid back right now compared to Spot! ("oh, what's that? big deal... zzzzz")

They all carry their tails high in the air when walking and waggle them rapidly when greeting me or another canine. They are starting to play rougher. They have pointy fangs! No longer mere speedbumps in their gumline! They love being cuddled and snuggled and gosh their fur is so soft. They are just about the epitome of cuteness now.

There are amusing small scale rank and order squabbles but their attention spans are so short that after a few seconds, they are sleeping in a heap again. :rotfl:

Their claws are very sharp, like kittens! I've trimmed the pointy ends that have started scratching Zor (Mom). They also 'nurse' (no milk) on their sister Ruya, but she doesn't seem to be near as sore and tender to their scratches and grabs as their mother is.

If they have a reason to, they climb out of the wading pool and walk around following whomever, especially their mom or myself. Not all are as easily motivated to climb out, but they definitely all surge toward Zor when she comes in the door and peeks into the pool. They are good at this climbing out business if Mom's just out of reach, and for the same reason are getting good at popping back into the pool too if Mom curls up in there. You can see they are already thinking, what's in it for me, before they do something - if it's Mom and they're hungry... LOOK OUT! Gangway! :)

Adventure! Now I can open the front door and sit outside and call "Puppy! Puppy!", and they eventually all come stepping outside past the front door to explore -- or to have some chow (easier to clean up if they eat outside). After they eat, they need to pee and poop and so they wander sniffing around for a few steps (not too many yet) looking for places to do this. They are not very good at this yet and will still be learning and developing muscle control at 8 weeks and a bit longer in some cases (they can't hold it very long). After that business is done, it's time to play or take a nap. B)


Mmm, what's this? One of their first baby gruels fed in the wading pool.
Rice baby cereal, cottage cheese, goat milk, water, some raw egg yolk (no white) and a little bit of soft puppy chow.
Clockwise from top: Spot, Neil, Mr. T, Darth


Darth and Choco. Full tummies and a little bit sticky and wet.

When they are tired and relaxed they tend to become "jelly legs" again. They waddle on their bellies like little crocodiles, sometimes at high speed! But when out of their nest and on the hard floor, they are increasingly sure footed!


Neil (Diamond) at the top (back for seconds), J in the glass pan, and Batman making sure the puppy gruel is finished. I hoped to catch a pic of J falling asleep in the pan, but no luck. She got up and waddled a few steps away, peed then joined a few littermates to mouth each other a bit, then snooze in a slightly wet, sticky mess. :p


Nummy puppy chow in larger quantities!
Softened solid food (this is Iams Puppy formula).
Zor's nosetip on the right.


Darth chewing on Ruya's neck when she drops in for a visit to help clean the babies up after a meal.


Darth and sleepy Neil at the top. From the bottom: Spot, Batman, Choco, J, and T
Spot, Choco and J are the girls. That's Ruya enjoying them.
You can see how their coats are lightening. Multicolor hairs are growing in length and coming out under the dark coats they were born with.

Wednesday I invited them to come outside for a while to socialize with the world so the puppies explored one of the smaller dog houses in the yard.


Above: Neil cutie in the dog house. (3.5 weeks)
Spots of pigment continue to fill in his nose leather and white nose marking, causing the white or pink areas to shrink.

Neil at three days. Eyes and ears sealed to the world.


Spots of color come through on the white areas of the paws. These spots are called a 'ticking' trait and the trait is dominant.
In adults, sometimes the spots are almost unnoticeable in some leg areas as the coat fades to pale yellow. Sometimes the dog also has flashy black borders between the yellow coat and the white markings, then some of these speckles will be black. Anatolians are not normally heavily 'ticked' or speckled.

On the muzzle if the dog has a white marking like a blaze, sometimes you'll see black or colored freckles there -- as the black mask color under the white markings shows through in these peekaboo spots. These freckles are really cute on puppies.


This pic is an enlargement detail of the pic below. You can see the black 'sailing' on Ruya. This is a closeup of her shoulder hair (top of withers). Almost none of her coat hairs are solid colored except for the black sailing. The yellow hairs in her coat have bands of color, as many as five or more from root to hair tip on the longer hairs. Within each shaft of hair as it grows, different densities of pigment fill the cortex of each hair - this is the nature of the agouti trait seen in sable colored dogs. Some areas of grayish, some white, some tan/yellow, some black... alternating in patterns, all the way up each shaft of hair. Some hairs having brownish tips or black looking tips, or sometimes white tips. On areas such as her flanks, she has two tone hair, sort of white and pale yellow, root to tip.


In this picture, you can see the lighter roots, graduating to a darker middle (looks black), shifting to pale yellow band, and even paler tips although some tips are a bit brownish. Boone, my male is a bit darker than my girls. He has some areas in his coat where some of his yellow hairs have more than one black band on them. His coat is a bit shorter than on Zor and Ruya.

Thursday it was raining off and on. The puppies did go outside for one feeding of their gruel and seemed to enjoy the outside more this time, lingering and checking more things out, since it is becoming more familiar to them.

I think I tried to reassure some people that I haven't been abducted by aliens. But maybe I have. They are really cute!

Labels: 2006Litter, genetics

These affected cases are being exported out of Turkey, so the recessive gene is spreading. I have not heard if we have affected ASDs or Kangal Dogs in the USA. The most recent case, 2006, is in Germany and one prior to that, 2004, is in Finland and the first case I read about was reported in Turkey in 2003.

So it is coming if it hasn't already arrived.

See a pic (click to enlarge 125K)
From JAVMA, Vol 223, No. 10, Nov. 15, 2003 - Scientific Reports: Clinical Report, 1443


Note from the ages of the affected dogs, that the trait is apparently well established in related breedings since the affected pups obviously did not all come from the same mother. Possibly from sisters owned by the same person. Since the trait is probably recessive, this means that the sire also supplied genes to cause expression of the trait.

Many Turkish dog importers have brought dogs to the USA over the recent years. Because the trait behaves as a recessive and apparently has modifiers as to degree of expression, it can be hidden until the gene in one dog meets up with another dog carrying the same gene and they each donate the recessive to the pups in their litters.

We do have enough increase in COI numbers in the USA going by some of my calculations (with well over a thousand Turkish dog pedigrees in my database), that such recessives will turn up soon if we have them. Puppy buyers are brutally honest when breeders are hush. We need to know if this is happening in the USA and which bloodlines to avoid. Puppy buyers must continue to be honest where breeders have not. It takes a community to protect our breed.

Here are the cases from the earliest reports to the present one.

2003
(UPDATE: for clarity: these pups would have been born before the 2003 peer review and publishing of this article, depending on how long documenting the case and peer review took - sometimes as long as one year - perhaps the birthdate of these pups was 2002)
First reported case that I know of was in Turkey, published in Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association in Nov 2003. The article from the Journal was sent to me by sharp-eyed Audrey at Shaman's Anatolians.

Department of Surgery, Akdeniz University, Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine, Burdur, Turkey.

Two 8-month-old and one 7.5-month-old Anatolian Shepherd dogs were examined because of excessive drooling and poor weight gain. The 2 older dogs were full brothers, and the younger dog was their half sister; all 3 had the same sire. Physical examination revealed that the dogs were unable to protrude their tongues properly. In all 3, the tip of the tongue was notched and deviated ventrally when the dog attempted to protrude the tongue. In addition, a thin tissue band between the sublingual surface of the tongue and the floor of the oral cavity was seen; this tissue band extended from the lingual frenulum to the gingiva of the mandibular incisors. Frenuloplasty was performed to correct the complete ventral ankyloglossia. Immediately after surgery, the tongue was more mobile, and during recheck examinations, the dogs appeared to be able to use their tongues normally and could protrude their tongues when panting. They had gained weight and weighed almost as much as their healthy siblings. In all 3 dogs, the tip of the tongue retained a "W" shape.

WHERE did the German puppy that needed surgery come from? Who bred the dog? How related were the parents? WHO were the parent dogs? Were others in the genetic trail affected by the trait? Are there owners in Germany being tightlipped about it?

Here is where it is chilling ------ If it happened in some dog's great Aunt, that could very well mean that the speaker's present dog is a carrier even if "they never had babies like that!" This very simple genetic fact can be an infuriating topic. I did talk to a few Turkish dog owners and sellers about some white puppies that were born. These pups were blood relatives to ones being sold in the USA and abroad as KANGAL DOGS. Since the aunt or a distant cousin was WHITE, and because their own dog wasn't -- they didn't think their dog was a carrier of the trait. In fact one of the Turkish dog traders that helps import dogs to the USA got tightlipped and angry about the white puppies being revealed and started up a stupid hissy fit with some cronies, including one guy that is a rocket scientist that apparently knows next to nothing about genetics. One ASDCA breeder of ASD and Kangal Dogs who had purchased related dogs from the same strain also played the 'huh'? "that's not what my broker said"...

2003
(UPDATE: Checking my notes - These puppies were born early in 2003 and obtained from a Turkish member of parliament who breeds Kangal Dogs originating from SIVAS, Turkey)
An affected puppy and its unaffected littermate turned up in Finland in 2003. As far as I know, the affected one wasn't serious enough to need surgery. The dogs seemed a bit small but I don't have an update on them.

Sadly... my friends, this IS the way Ankyloglossia is going to spread in the Turkish dogs all over the world and it is happening NOW. . .

2006
This is a case published in Aug 2006 in a German Vet periodical.

Kleintierpraxis Reinle und Grundmann, Well am Rhein, Deutschland.

Ankyloglossia, commonknown as tongue-tie, is a rare congenital oral anomaly in dogs. A complete attachment of the lingual frenulum to the floor of the oral cavity leads to limited mobility of the tongue including problems during eating and swallowing. In humans ankyloglossia is a common anomaly in newborn infants. In our report a 5-month old Anatolian Shepherd dog was surgically treated and full function of the tongue could be achieved with a horizontal-to-vertical frenuloplasty.

2007 - 2010 coming to a Turkish dog litter near YOU...

Labels: breed_info, genetics

A local Anatolian owner is moving to Idaho and had recently taken her pup there to check out the lay of the land. Sure sounds exciting!!


Looks beautiful to me!

Of course, when I think of remote and rustic environments, I think of bugs, snakes and bears too. eep.

Here's part of one shot I made of Matty when she came to visit early in February.

Very cute!

A sweet temperament as well.
I love her brindle color though you can't see much of it here!

Here is a cropped shot of one side of her body.

Spots and stripes!

Just to show how nuts I am, I'm thinking I should have made a macro shot of some of her individual brindle colored hairs! I'm so fascinated by the brindle pattern and generally intrigued by the bands in the hair of genetic sables anyway. :P

Spots!

Above you can see fleck of color on her body, and freckles on her nose. This is called ticking. This is