These early studies “made it clear that we could learn from dogs, but that we needed much larger sample sizes to do this really well,” says Elinor Carlson, a geneticist at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and the Broad Institute. So researchers began mounting a large-scale citizen-science project, collecting DNA samples and data from dogs across the US.
Pet owners have risen to the challenge: The Golden Retriever Lifespan Study, which began recruiting in 2012, has followed more than 3,000 dogs to identify genetic and environmental risk factors for cancers that are particularly prevalent in this breed. Since 2019, about 50,000 dogs have participated in the Dog Aging Project, a long-term study on health and lifespan.
Dr. Carlson's own project, Darwin's Dogs, has enrolled 44,000 dogs and is growing (about 4,000 have had their genomes sequenced). Researchers are analyzing the data for clues about bone cancer, obsessive behaviors and other traits. Early findings suggest that many behavioral traits, such as sociability and trainability, are heritable but are widespread across the dog kingdom, making breeds little useful for predicting an individual dog's personality.
This spring, Dr. Carlson released the long-awaited expanded version of “Darwin's Cat.” “I'm a cat person through and through, and I've never had a dog,” he said. Later, by email, he added, “I'd be interested to know if the 'cats sleeping on your head' phenomenon is genetically influenced.”
Data Driver
These projects were made possible by faster and cheaper genome sequencing, but the “tremendous commitment” of pet owners was essential, said Dr Ostrander, who now leads the Dog10K project, an effort to build a comprehensive global catalogue of dog genetic diversity.