MOLECULAR SCREENING OF FOUR CANINE HEREDITARY DISEASES IN TAIWAN

Abstract

Animals that have inherited a mutant gene from their parents (father and/or mother) may acquire hereditary diseases. Most mutations are autosomal recessive. Usually, hereditary diseases go unnoticed until symptoms arise. The objective of this study is to screen four canine hereditary diseases in Taiwan. The diseases include persistent Müllerian duct syndrome (PMDS) and myotonia congenita (MC) in Miniature Schnauzers, Golden Retriever muscular dystrophy (GRMD) in Golden Retrievers and glycogen storage disease type Ia (GSD Ia) in Maltese. We collected 98 samples from Miniature Schnauzers, 57 samples from Golden Retrievers and 54 samples from Maltese. All molecular tests are based on restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), which consists of a genomic polymerase chain reaction (PCR) plus specific restriction enzyme digestion. Results showed that the 98 samples, which were collected from Miniature Schnauzers, were all MC wild type (WT), with 78 being PMDS WT and 20 (20%) being PMDS heterozygous type. None of the samples were MC mutant type (MT) or PMDS MT; on the other hand, no GRMD mutant gene or GSD Ia mutant gene was found in Golden Retrievers and Maltese samples.