genes.

Flickr/pato_garza Four years ago, scientists decoded the canine genome. Already that research is beginning to pay off -- not only for our four-legged friends, but for human medicine, too. A team of scientists from Tufts University, the Broad Institute and the University of Massachusetts Medical Center recently zeroed in on a gene in Doberman pinschers that's associated with compulsive behavior like licking and pacing, the Boston Globe reported. Now researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health are taking a close look at that same gene in humans with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Compulsive behaviors are common in certain dog breeds, according to a news article on the Broad ...

Hi. How come your hair's so short? Photo: star5112/Flickr Short, long, straight, curly, wiry, smooth or extra fluffy -- dog hair comes in a lint-brush-busting variety of lengths and textures. Now, researchers at the National Human Genome Institute have discovered that almost all the variation in dog fur comes from just three genes, as NPR reports. Elaine A. Ostrander, chief of the Institute's cancer genetics branch, studied the DNA of more than 1,000 dogs, representing about 90 different breeds, according to NPR. "You can go to the dog park, and every breed of dog looks different from every other breed, it seems. Yet, you know, when we get down to the molecular biology, we really find ...