Dog research is at a crossroads. Like in humans, genetic tools could revolutionize veterinary care and improve the health and welfare of all dogs, but widely used genetic testing services don’t provide the information needed by researchers to achieve this vision. A collaboration between Gencove, genomic scientists, and dog breeders has developed a new solution that combines high-accuracy genetic testing with comprehensive whole genome genotyping. This dual-purpose product supports breed ancestry analysis, Mendelian disease testing, and large-scale genomics.
Dog owners, veterinarians, and researchers today are increasingly curious about breed characteristics and how variants in their DNA may affect their health. Recognizing the prevalence of Mendelian diseases among canines, there is a growing demand for sophisticated genotyping solutions that go beyond basic breed identification, that address known health risks, and that allow for improving our understanding of how specific variants have differential effects in different breeds, mixed ancestry, or non-breed dogs.
Current Genotyping Approaches in Canines
Traditional dog genotyping methods primarily use fixed arrays that lack the flexibility to incorporate new traits and to better refine our genetic understanding of existing traits. This method constrains both researchers and the dog genetics industry, preventing them from accessing the most up-to-date information about potential genetic health issues.
Low-pass whole genome sequencing has become a crucial tool in canine research, providing a cost-effective method for obtaining broad genetic insights across entire genomes. This approach allows for the identification of genetic variants and their associations with various traits and diseases at a fraction of the cost of high-depth sequencing. Low-pass sequencing has provided the foundation of quantitative trait genetics for citizen science, enabling the scale and resolution needed to identify QTLs (Figure 1).
