This week's Science has a nice article mapping the hairless phenotype in dogs to a small deletion in a poorly-characterized transcription factor. One of the hairless breeds used in mapping is the Chinese Crested, members of which are perennial contenders in the World's Ugliest Dog Competition. As more dog phenotypes are mapped, one imagines that this competition will be taken over by hideous genetically-modified freaks with the hair/tooth-lessness of the Chinese Crested, the slobber of a Newfoundland, the legs of a Daschund, and the rage of a Springer Spaniel. The horror.

Labels: Genetics