Page 128 - Aussie Magazine no1, 2023

Informative
of poly-A tail would produce some type of Merle
pattern. Using the new technology available
allowed for the “base pairs” of Merle’s tail to be
counted. This is an extremely challenging process
when Merle’s long monotonous poly-A tail is
involved. The conditions and quality of products
128 | A Worldwide Magazine for the Aussie • Issue 1/2023
used for this process must be of the highest
quality to give optimal results.
Now the mission would be to assign the length
of the base pair numbers (the genotype) to the
Merle pattern (the phenotype). The lengths of
each allele in the research paper (2018 “langevin
et al”) were arrived at specifically to address the
needs of breeders. Not only how a particular dog
would express but how this dog would breed when
alleles were combined with those of a mate. In
order to achieve these precise results of genotype
= phenotype, there must be a working knowledge
of dogs in pedigrees; parents, offspring and related
individuals through the generations. Although
I was responsible for setting the boundary of
each of the 6 M* alleles, I did not accomplish this
on my own. Many owners and breeders from all
breeds worldwide offered testing and pedigree
information on hundreds of dogs. This is a prime
example of how breeders who are on the frontlines
of recognising the colours and patterns from parent
to offspring, have been instrumental in helping labs
and researchers to develop new testing.
To be continued......