Yeast researcher uses sabbatical to study dogs By Kerry Mullln Professor George Sprague h.is spent mm It of Ins i areer i on due ting research on yeast Though the yeast organism is an excellent medium for genet ii experimentation, it do»»sn't provide much companionship for the researcher Sprague took advantage of tns rei enl sahbati uil to pursue researt I) on a more friendly organism dogs I wanted to do something interesting and something dif ferent from what i do lien'.'' said Sprague, who said a project at the University of (ailiforma in Berkeley provided the perfei t opportunity The pro its t is i entered around identifying what spur ifn genes, if anv, control particular behav iors in dogs Sprague previous ly worked with tiie project s organizer. Jasper Kinc, when Rule n as working on his Him tor ale in the late i cific genes nr sets of genes that control behavior. PHolo by AftfHDrty Fo»r.#v 4 s a resu/f of generations of breeding. Meg. a Border Collie, will not break her concentration on a ball held by her owner. University Professor George Sprague. The research efforts are two fold One part involves researchers mapping the entire set of amine genes The second part requires the breeding of dogs with different behaviors and studying the behaviors and genes of the offspring. Sprague has been involved in both parts of the research While at Berkeley he conduct ed mapping experiments. He also volunteered his dog, Meg, as part of the study. Meg. who is a border collie, has been bred with Kine’s pet border collie to produce pure bred offspring that serve as a control to compare the mixed breed dogs Border collies ware chosen for the project because they are docile and they show a specific set of pronounced herding behaviors that start at a very young age Also, as Sprague points out. "there are people who say border collies are the most intelligent dogs.” Newfoundlands are the other breed involved in the study. Like border collies, they are docile, but their dominant behaviors include swimming and rescuing drowning victims. The two breeds temperaments and unique behaviors made them ideal for the research The original mating took place Ix'tween Pine's border collie and a Newfoundland Inst year, and mx puppies were born. Each puppy has been placed in a home, where it will be raised just like any other American dog, with the exception of peri odically having to perform for a video camera and donate blood. "The animals will have no experiments done on them," Sprague said. "They will all be people's pets." When thB puppies are old enough, they w'ill bo bred. Sprague said it is from the third generation of dogs that the researchers expect to get the most significant genetic infor mation Despite their increasing significance to the research, these puppies will only be required to do what the parents did donate blood and play in front of cameras. While the puppies ploy, the researchers will work. They will be trying to identify and locate s|ms ific genes that correspond to the behaviors the puppies show in their play. Sprague said three or five genes may be responsible for a specific behavior. If that is the case, the researchers will be able to identify them. However, some behaviors may he governed by 10 to 20 genes, in which case the technology available today is not sophisticated enough to identify them all. On the other hand, Sprague said. "To our surprise, 1 expect there will lie cases where it will he one gene." It will he* a few years he'ere Sprague will know if his t \pec tations are correct. A study on dogs takes time. Sprague said. "This is a very different world than what I'm use to. Each gen eration of dog takes a lot longer than yeast." he said. Since returning to Eugene. Sprague's involvement in the project has been limited. How ever, he does entertain ideas of returning to the project some day. Even if Sprague did secure grants to bring some aspect of the dog project to the University, students should not expect to see more dogs on campus. "What I would look at next is what the gene erodes for." Sprague said. He said that would require returning to working on the molecular scale. 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