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Originally Posted by NGessner  Would the piebald gene alone in the Biewer separate them from the Yorkie in the MARS test. And where you saw the fading of the dots back towards the Yorkies PCA are those Biewers that had been bred back to the Yorkie (e.i. F-1 and F-2) ??? |
Great question!!! No, the piebald gene alone would NOT separate the Biewers from the Yorkies in the MARS test. The MARS test is based on 300+ DNA markers scattered across the canine genome (dog chromosomes).
Where you see the fading of Biewer dots back towards the Yorkshire Terrier dots COULD be due to some Biewers having more Yorkshire Terrier DNA in them than the Biewers that are more separated from the Yorkshire Terrier group. It could be due to random "genetic drift" during the breeding process, or it could be due to the samples being taken from Biewers that had been crossed back to Yorkshire Terriers more generations. A new study including groups of Biewers from the different types of breeding progams (Biewer X Biewer and Biewer X Yorkshire Terrier), all with well-documented pedigree information, would be informative in answering this type of question.