CHARACTERIZING DOG BREED DIFFERENTIATION WITH MICROSATELLITE MARKERS

Estimates of dog breed differentiation at microsatellite loci were obt ained: (1) by contrasting data from German shepherds with a composite breed mixture sample; (2) by examining the Wahlund effect in new and p ublished breed mixture data sets; and (3) from a comparison of publish ed retriever and dachshund allele frequencies.In terms of F-statistics , the estimates ranged F-BT=0 . 22-0 . 30, and were therefore consider ably greater than a previous estimate from allozyme data (F-BT=0 . 10) . The new estimates are consistent with a view that the genetic basis of an average breed effectively corresponds to four genomes sampled fr om the total, or ancestral, dog gene pool.