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Wiener Dog's Stubby Legs may Hold Clue to Human Dwarfism

by Sreeraman on July 27, 2009 at 4:24 PM Research News

A new research has determined that the wiener dog's stubby little legs hold a clue to both human dwarfism and evolution as a whole.

The key is in a newly identified gene that makes short-legged dogs, like the dachshund, so short, according to the research.

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According to a report in National Geographic News, geneticist Heidi Parker and colleagues at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Maryland compared 76 different dog breeds-both short and tall-looking for genetic differences that could be tied to leg length.

They found one-a mutation of a single gene, which seems to be responsible for the majority of short-legged dogs' stumpiness.

The mutation could have arisen as far back as 30,000 years ago. It's not clear how big a role humans, through breeding, had on the mutation's spread.

Of 20 ground-hugging breeds, 19 had the newfound gene-suggesting that most short-legged dogs, from corgis to basset hounds, share a common ancestor, according to Parker.

"We think of physical traits as being the product of little genetic changes built up over time, but here we could look at it as one major change that's captured and held on to," she said.

"There may just be a small number of major genetic changes that create all the different shapes and sizes of dogs," she added.

The genetic revelation doesn't apply just to dogs.

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Wiener Dog's Stubby Legs may Hold Clue to Human Dwarfism

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