06/08 – RGD announces the addition of dog genes In addition to being man’s best friend, the domestic dog has proved essential in studies to develop most of the top 25 prescribed drugs in the United States. The 1923 Nobel Prize-winning discovery of insulin was facilitated by dog studies. Originally domesticated from the grey wolf perhaps as much as 100,000 years ago, dogs have been extensively bred by man. As a result of this, dogs tend to develop, and can be used as a model for, a number of diseases, including cancer, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune disorders, allergies, thyroid disease, cataracts, epilepsy, hip dysplasia, progressive retinal atrophy and blindness and deafness.

RGD has incorporated the dog (Canis lupus familiarus) into our database. Now when you search for genes at RGD, in addition to results for rat, human, mouse, squirrel, chinchilla and bonobo, you can access dog genes as well. Once you have one or more dog genes, you can use RGD’s Analysis and Visualization tools to explore your gene set. • Use the Dog JBrowse genome browser to view the genomic neighborhood for your gene or genes of interest. • Perform complex queries for dog genes using the OLGA advanced search tool. • The Gene Annotator (GA) Tool gives you access to all of the functional annotations for your gene list and their orthologs. Go to http://rgd.mcw.edu/rgdweb/ga/start.jsp, select ‘Dog’ from the dropdown menu and enter your list of gene symbols or other identifiers, or use this link to access the GA Tool for the list of dog genes annotated to the “Cardiomyopathies” disease term. Weekly updated inferred dog annotations from orthologous human genes for disease are available, as well as dog-specific disease annotations imported from Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA), also updated weekly. Orthologous gene ontology (GO) and pathway annotations are coming soon. Examples of genes with disease annotations include Von Willebrand factor, VWF, and phosphodiesterase 6B, PDE6B. More information about the dog: NCBI Dog Genome Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog. Lindblad-Toh K et al. (2005) Nature 438:803-819. PMID: 16341006 Dog star rising: the canine genetic system. Sutter NB and Ostrander EA. (2004) Nat. Rev. Genet. 5:900-910. PMID:15573122