I apologize if I am taking this further off topic, but I found some of these articles on the genes behind hair curl very interesting.
First, I guess, there is a distinction between whether you're dealing with a dog breed known for curly hair, like, say a poodle, vs. a golden retriever. I would THINK that a yorkie would fall into light curl / straight, since many yorkies have curly coats (not like poodle curly though).
This is definitely not my area of expertise, so I am probably missing a lot of this. But I thought the articles presented were talking about how variants in three genes produced seven major coat types. HOWEVER, I don't think the yorkie coat type was described, unless I missed it.
Here's an excerpt on the 7 coat types:
- Short-haired dogs like basset hounds have none of the variant genes, just the ancestral form of each gene.
- Wire-haired dogs such as Australian terriers have the variant form of only the RSPO2 gene.
- Dogs with wiry and curly hair – airedale terriers, for example – have variants of both RSPO2 and KRT71 genes.
<<Is this where the yorkie goes?>>
- Long-haired dogs like golden retrievers have a variant form of the FGF5 gene.
- Long-haired dogs with furnishings, such as the bearded collie, have variant forms of FGF5 and RSPO2.
- Curly haired dogs such as Irish water spaniels have the variant forms of the FGF5 and KRT71 genes.
- Curly haired dogs with furnishings – such as the bichon frise breed and some Portuguese water dogs, including President Obama's dog Bo – have the variant form of all three genes
Anyone care to elaborate? I love it when we get all sciency up in here.
