science news: Miniature dogs.

penny April 7th, 2007

Oi Bantay! =)

Well the context of this post is not entirely on the guard dog Pinoys usually have, but specifically for the toy dog-lovers. Tiny breeds as the minipinscher, toy poodle, pomeranian, terriers, etc.

Several articles yesterday, one of which was in yesterday’s LA Times , talked about how small dogs are now potentially useful in research about growth factors in humans that can eventually lead to insights about cancer and skeletal diseases. Isn’t that interesting?

Scientists found a particular piece of regulatory DNA that was present in all small dogs. It is an amazing find, and how this supposed “disadvantage” of being small survived evolution can be explained by the domestication of these tiny canines by humans.

‘Coz aren’t tiny dogs just so sweet?

But the funny thing about it is they found the same gene present in Rottweilers. Maybe they’re really tiny dogs in big costumes.

======= Iron-rich food consumed today : BROCCOLLI.=======

Losing hair? Maybe it’s time for a hair transplant.

6 Responses to “science news: Miniature dogs.”

  1. # AJon 07 Apr 2007 at 8:56 pm

    wehehe. gagawing guinea pigs ang mga toy dogs. kawawa naman.

  2. # Penon 07 Apr 2007 at 10:38 pm

    DNA samples lang naman, it doesn’t hurt them =) The research team actually went to dog shows to ask for samples, and the pedigree-owners eagerly agreed!

  3. # Sharion 08 Apr 2007 at 12:34 am

    How interesting. Parang ang layo kasi, tapos may connection pala. Hehe.

    “growth factors in humans that can eventually lead to insights about cancer and skeletal diseases”

  4. # benjon 08 Apr 2007 at 2:54 pm

    haha. So they’ll induce cancer in the small dogs? I guess that’s less dogs that can bite me. I’m all for it.

  5. # penon 08 Apr 2007 at 4:25 pm

    Waaah! You’re so cruel Benj! No hurting of doggies here! DNA samples lang!

    How it works is that they just study the differences of DNA sequences, and probably try to see how this is analogous to human DNA. O kaya naman, kapag naintindihan na natin kung bakit sila hindi lumalaki, pwedeng magawan natin ng paraan para hindi lumaki ang mga cancer cells. Sloppy explanation but I think that’s how it works =P We share at least 80% (yata, or more) similarity with dogs.

  6. # benjon 08 Apr 2007 at 7:28 pm

    Pen: you’re acting as if you’re surprised. *insert evil laughter here. :)

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