Kingi showing how a PON moves
(Flinkbein Srebro)
Christina Drake's Response to Mr. Miroslaw Redlicki's article on PON Tails
International
PON Community I read the article by Mr. Miroslaw Redlicki in
Pondigest (www.pondigest.com)
on Friday 30 March 2007. His article " LONG, SHORT OR
DOCKED? ON PONS’ TAILS"
emphasized one of the most current issues regarding PON breeding around
the world in respect to tails and their lengths. Since we have also taken this point under
consideration in In addition to the genetic aspect, I will also
tackle the issue of prevailing short tails and contrast this with the
concept of preserving long tails, and everything in between, since they
constitute a significant segment of the breed. We cannot only breed
appearance, and just one part of it, the tail. The PON is a complex
whole animal, made up of individual characteristics, including head,
tail,legs,etc. Before
beginning, I must notify everyone that these are my opinions and do not
necessarily present the opinion of The Finnish PON Club, however, as a
member of the board of the club as well as a member of the breeding
committee, I strongly believe that this presents the opinion of at least a
majority of the members. HISTORY GENETICS
1. A single Mendelian
gene (dominant) decides whether a tail is shortened at all
2. A large group of other genes decide the
actual length of a shortened tail and also its shape A dominant gene in this sense means that it is
sufficient that one of the parents of the litters has a short tail, and at
least some of the puppies are short-tailed. The phenotype caused by this
bobtail-mutation can vary from no-tail to 2/3 tail and into anything in
between, and according to Dosent
Kirsi Sainio from the Department
of Finnish Biochemistry and Developmental Biology, all of these
different lengths of tails are caused by the same mutation. This is called
a T-Box mutation which is lethal
if combined to another short-tailed and therefore genetic
researchers strongly advice combining this to a non-lethal phenotype (long
tail). This
would mean that the length of the parents' short tails would not be
equivalent to the puppies tail length. And from this information, we
also have had some proof in Mrs Sainio also clarified, that the gene, in
which this bobtail-mutation is found, is vital to the early development of
the fetus and affects also a variety of other things besides the
tail-length. If two short-tails are mated, can some of the fetuses have
two mutated alleles and none of the normal, and lethal dominant mutation
means that homozygote bobtail-gene phenotypes will die as fetus. If
short-tail/short-tail combinations are created and puppies are born this
is a sign, according to Mrs Sainio, that the homotsygote individuals have
died during pregnancy, but those that are born are either heterotsygote
short tails or long-tailed "wild-type" phenotypes. It would be
interesting to know if bobtail-bobtail -combinations' litters are smaller
than long tail-bobtail, because this would explain and enforce this
theory. PON-TAIL
MUTATION RESEARCH IN In For a while now, the Finnish PON Club has
searched for different litters to find PONs for testing regarding
short tail genetics. Most especially non-tails are to be tested, but also
combinations in which there is no certainty of one or both of the parents'
tail lengths'. This spring, we have gathered a group of almost
20 PONs for DNA-testing that will be carried out by the Institute
of Biomedicine's department of Biochemistry and Developmental Biology that will evaluate
research for more information about the mutation on PONs and whether it is
in fact lethal in all cases or not. It might be that different PONs carry
a different mutation variation. We carry out this research NOT because we
want more short tailed PONs but because our genetic basis is rather narrow
due to the small gene pool of PONs and finding non-lethal variations would
mean that we would not have to choose a short-tailed male for long-tailed
female and vice-versa, and this would give us wider gene pool of PONs to
choose for breeding. As soon as we receive results from the new
research, we will absolutely share this information with the PON
community. SUMMA
SUMMARUM and INVITATION FOR DISCUSSION When it comes to genetics, one must also
remember, as Mr Redlicki emphasized, that tails DO come in all lengths. I
agree with Mr Redlicki as he states that as docking is spreading, it is
important to decide about future breeding strategies. However, I do not
feel that a short tail is such a unique feature since we also have long
tails.
Mr Redlicki also states that "One must
admit, thought, that these partially shortened tails are not very
attractive". I must comment that the beauty is in the eye of the
beholder. It is well known that what the eye gets used to, is long
determined and hard to change, but it has already happened in Finland,
where docking has been prohibited for a long time: not that many people
think that tails of different lengths are unattractive, and this is a
result of the fact that we have been watching different variations for
much longer now. This has not come easily, since we had to fight not only
our own images of the "traditional" PON, but also the attitudes
of judges and other authorities. A new "PON-people" generation
has been born that has not been used to only short tails and they will see
different tail lengths as a normal part of the breed since they will SEE
THEM ALL equally. Docking has created an image that does not
present the whole true nature of PON, and in my opinion, tails of all
lengths should be cherished. I have heard of a comment on tails "all
best pons are born with short tails", and we all know this is not the
case: Many long tailed PONs have been extremely successful in shows and
brought additional value for our breed also as breeding dogs. Furthermore, If the genetics test carried out
currently documents that the bobtail gene is actually a normal lethal
type in all PONs, we will have no choice but to get used to the tails. Or
if the test proves that also heterotsygote phenotypes can be born from
these combinations, what would that mean for our breeding? Breeding only
short-tailed PONs would, in my opinion, be a hindrance for this breed
since it would not only mean that one current segment of the PON would
disappear but also that the amount of combinations and individuals used
for breeding would decrease and the genetic pool would get smaller as a
consequence. Even more so since the breeders of this breed around the
world have managed to keep PON as original as it is this long. However, I do have a slight fear that if the
test proves that there are non-lethal variations of these genes in some
PONS, using only bob-tailed PONs for breeding becomes more common, which
might mean a decrease in the amount of long tailed PONS, and this again,
might result in disagreements in breeding PONs around the world (since
some of us like them with tails and some without). On the other hand, I
believe that breeders are responsible and believe in their good judgment.
We all know the fact that most of the dogs end up being normal family
dogs, and in this sense, the length of the tail is rather insignificant,
but, as Mr Redlicki also emphasized, does require decisions at some
level.
I would like to invite open discussion and an
exchange of information on this matter and thank Mr Redlicki for bringing
this to the attention of the international PON community. Sincerely, This is a link to Mr. Miroslaw Redlicki's original article on tails: https://pondigest.tripod.com/pontails.html
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