A wolf in dog's clothing?

	10 year old male North American Gray Wolf. Click here for more information.

In our fairy tales and horror movies, the biggest, baddest, most wolfish wolves, tend to be depicted with black or dark coats. So, it may be surprising to learn that the gene responsible for dark coat color in wolves and coyotes is actually a fairly recent addition to these animals’ genomes, most likely having arrived through mating with domestic dogs, researchers report in the Feb. 6 issue of Science. Dark coat color is actually relatively rare in wolves and coyotes, though it’s unusually common in the wolves of Yellowstone. Researchers recently identified the genetic mutation responsible for dark coat color in domestic dogs, and Tovi Anderson and colleagues now show that this mutation has the same effect in wolves and coyotes. The researchers also compared the sequence of this gene and some of its neighboring DNA (known as a haplotype) among a variety of individual wolves, coyotes and dogs. Their results suggest that the mutation originally occurred in dogs and later spread into wolves and coyotes by hybridization. Wolves living on the tundra tend to be light-colored and dark coats are more common among wolves living in the forest. The researchers note that available tundra habitat is decreasing, so the introduction of a gene from domesticated animals - usually considered a negative effect - may in this case be helping wolves to adapt and survive.

Article #25: "Molecular and Evolutionary History of Melanism in North American Gray Wolves," by T.M. Anderson; S.I. Candille; H. Tang; G.S. Barsh at Stanford University in Stanford, CA; B.M. vonHoldt; D.R. Stahler; R.K. Wayne at University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, CA; M. Musiani at University of Calgary in Calgary, AB, Canada; C. Greco; E. Randi at INFS in Ozzano Emilia, Italy; D.R. Stahler; D.W. Smith at Yellowstone Center for Resources, National Park Service in Yellowstone National Park, WY; B. Padhukasahasram; C.D. Bustamante at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY; J.A. Leonard at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden; E.A. Ostrander at National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, MD.