A Case of Dominant Black Coat Color in Russian Populations of German Shepherd Dogs

Abstract

AbstractThe interaction between two genes, Agouti and K gene, produces black and non-black coat colors in German Shepherd Dogs. Our research shows that the KB allele (of the K gene (CBD103) has been found within the Russian populations of both German Shepherd Dogs and East European Shepherds Dogs. It was shown that especially for German Shepherds population the solid black coat color could be result as combination of aa in Agouty locus and absence of the KB allele in K locus, also as presence of KB allele independently of alleles in Agouty locus. It was found that the frequencies of alleles in the agouti locus in German shepherds are 0.51 (at) and 0.49 (a), while in East European shepherds they are 0.44 and 0.56, respectively. It has been shown that the distribution of the KB allele in the German and East European Shepherd breeds could begin in the same historical period, which led to the same frequencies of this allele in both breeds (0.25), subject to the same breeding strategy for color. It means that we met new situation of black coat color in shepherds breeds, that is reason to find the source of KB allele («zero-animal»), and characterize the way how this allele was shared with the population of two breeds.KeywordsGerman shepherdsEast European shepherdBlack coat colorK geneAgouty gene