New Tests Added – PRA-D & CURL

GenSol Diagnostics has added two new tests to our catalog.

Dominant PRA (PRA-D)

Dominant PRA (PRA-D) is an eye disorder that affects English Mastiffs and Bull Mastiffs.  It is a form of progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) that causes cells of the eye to deteriorate over time eventually leading to complete blindness. Typically, affected dogs show symptoms of the disease starting at approximately 2-3 years of age however, symptoms including night-blindness have been observed in puppies as young as 6 weeks.  Progression of the disease is fairly quick with most affected dogs suffering complete blindness within 1-2 years from the onset of symptoms.  This particular type of PRA seen in the Mastiff breeds is a dominant condition which means a dog only need inherit one copy of the mutation to be affected by the disease.

Curly Coat Locus (CURL)

Hair curl is an incomplete dominant characteristic caused by a mutation in the KRT71 gene.  Incomplete dominance refers to the fact that a dog can carry one copy of the gene which will result in a moderately curly (known as “wavy”) coat or two copies of the mutation which will result in a tightly curled coat.  Dogs lacking the mutation will typically have straight hair.  This particular mutation can be found prevalently in some breeds that typically display a curly coat.  The hair curl mutation can also be accompanied by the other mutations such as coat length and furnishings that can also contribute to the overall look of a dog’s coat.