2007 Joint CCA/COA Diversity Study by Mars

9-5-2008 Update from Dr. Paul Jones (Mars)
Chinook – update report 
The Chinook mixes are genetically very similar to the Chinook pures. Figure 1 shows a principle components analysis of the pures (blue dots) and the mixes. The principle components analysis takes up to 321 DNA measurements per dog and displays the genetic variability on a simple 2 dimensional plot. PC 1 and PC2 are simply axes that spread the data to show any differences present in the data.

​Figure 1. Principle component analysis of the pure and cross Chinooks kindly donated by the club members.
 
Each figure is presented on a different page for ease of reading.

​The dogs can be labelled but with this much data can be a bit hard to read. Figure 2 shows us the Chinooks on a graph with Labradors. Labrador are the most genetically diverse breed. If the club is interested in this type of picture we can do several 3D rotations with the dog identity labels showing to explore the Chinook DNA diversity story.

Figure 2. Chinook pures and mixes ploteed with labels against a Labrador set of dogs.

​The Chinooks are most like Alaskan malamutes, Siberian huskies and german shepherd dogs. Figure 3 shows how coherent the Chinook breed is compared to Alaskan Malamutes and Huskies. This type of picture shows us that Chinooks are a solid breed demonstrating genetic similarity across the dogs.

Figure 3. Chinook Pure and crosses compared to Alaskan Malamutes and Huskies.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

​If we generate a principle components graph of the breeds like Chinooks (figure 4) we can see the classic behaviour of a breed (the dogs stick together).

Figure 4. Principle component analysis of Chinooks, huskies, malamutes and Labradors.

Figure 4