The dog is eminently illustrative for the concept of genetic diversity. Mankind has domesticated wolves. After the domestication people kept “village dogs” belonging to landraces developed by natural selection and adapted to the local environments where they were kept. In this way, among the landraces, differences in traits developed based on differences in DNA. In the past 200-150 years standardized breeds were developed that differ greatly in phenotype: conformation (e.g. for body weight from 1 to 100 kg), hair coat and coat colour and in behaviour. Worldwide hundreds of standardized breeds were developed. These developments were facilitated by the fact that in the dog’s species a few genes with multiple alleles are responsible for these conformation and appearance traits. Thus dogs share similar DNA because they all have the wolf as ancestor and belong to the dog’s species, but differ in alleles for certain genes that creates the diversity among breeds (and to a lesser extend within breeds).
Algemeen
Inhoud
Integraties