The canine genome :: an alternative model for mammalian gene function analysis

The pace of genome sequencing has been tremendously accelerated during the last few years leading to the determination of dozens of entire bacterial genome sequences in addition to several eukaryotic genome sequences and to the publication in 2000 of a draft of the human one. Nowadays scientists have to face a new challenge that corresponds to the elucidation of the function(s) of the thousands of genes uncovered by sequencing Obviously this task will necessitate a large panel of methodologies. Since its domestication, dog has been the subject of intense breeding and selection practices that result in the creation of many breeds that differ one from the others by a huge variation in shape, size, coat colour, aptitude. Unfortunately these breeding practices along the selection of specific alleles governing those characters have co-selected various deleterious or morbid alleles and nowadays most of the canine breeds suffers from many different diseases of genetic origin. In addition many breeds have developed susceptibility toward many diseases very often similar to those affecting humans such as cancers, heart diseases, allergies... In this paper we present arguments in favour of the utilisation of the canine model to sort out through linkage disequilibrium studies the phenotype/genotype relationship as an aid to understand the function(s) of the thousands of genes uncovered by sequencing.