Curly coat in the Portuguese Water Dog

The curly coat in the Portuguese Water Dog is caused by a mutation in the gene for keratin-71 (KRT71). It is a missense mutation of the c.451C>T allele of c1. The mutation is inherited autosomal with incomplete dominance. This means that the curly coat will appear in dogs that have inherited the mutated allele from both parents (c1/c1). Heterozygotes (c1/N) will only have wavy coats and dogs not affected by this mutation (N/N) will have straight hair.

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Reference:

Cadieu, E., Neff, M.W., Quignon, P., Walsh, K., Chase, K., Parker, H.G., Vonholdt, B.M., Rhue, A., Boyko, A., Byers, A., Wong, A., Mosher, D.S., Elkahloun, A.G., Spady, T.C., André, C., Lark, K.G., Cargill, M., Bustamante, C.D., Wayne, R.K., Ostrander, E.A. : Coat variation in the domestic dog is governed by variants in three genes. Science 326:150-3, 2009. Pubmed reference: 19713490 . DOI: 10.1126/science.1177808.