The genetic variant probably comes from ancient wolves.
Ancient dogs, domesticated from wolves in the past 30,000 years, differed in size to some extent. But the current extreme size differences — the largest breeds are up to 40 times bigger than the smallest — emerged in the past 200 years, as humans established modern breeds.
The researchers identified two versions, or alleles, of the variant. Across all breeds, dogs with two copies of one allele tended to weigh less than 15 kilograms, whereas two copies of the other version were more common in dogs weighing more than 25 kilograms. Dogs with one copy of each allele tended to be intermediate in size, says Ostrander.
It’s not clear when the large-bodied allele evolved. The researchers found that an ancient wolf that lived in Siberia around 53,000 years ago carried one copy of this version. Other ancient wolves and modern grey wolves tend to have two, suggesting that the large-bodied allele might have been beneficial to wolves.
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