Roughly translated by TWIN Observer
STOCKHOLM / TT
Thank the wolf if your dog has white elements in the coat, which is about half of all dogs.
As early as the first century AD, the contemporary authority on agriculture, Roman Columella, tells that shepherds began to choose white dogs for breeding, in order to distinguish them from the big bad wolf at dawn and dusk.
Researchers at SLU have now nailed down on the question how the white color arises as purely genetic. It turns out that the color is due to mutations in a gene that is critical to the pigment cells’ development. The mutation makes the pigment cells which do not find their way into the skin during embryogenesis.
Unfortunately, the same pigment cells, an important function of the inner ear, which makes many white dogs, such as Dalmatians, also have problems with hearing.