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Beekeeper
Andrzej Kuhn

"Having once been an avid beekeeper,
I had always found the life of the colonies
to be both a source of fascination
and one of enduring wonder.
Until you have spent a tranquil day
in the spring sitting next to a hive of bees
 and watching their comings and goings,
 you have not truly experienced
the grandeur of the natural world.

Simply because the survival and welfare
 of the colony demands it, older bees revert to a more juvenile character,
adult lives are extended from 6 weeks
 to as long as 3 or 4 months, older hive bees revert to tasks that  were the province of their younger sisters.

Obviously, in the bee we are seeing an exquisite interplay  of gene expression, environment, and social dynamics
 that are primarily orchestrated
by the pheromonal secretions of the queen. There is an intelligence in this,
but one that speaks to us softly and in an alien tongue."
Jim Selzer

Articles

A Gathering Storm

A New Kind of Breeder

ALAConline DNA Bank

Basic Genetic Concepts

Breadth of Pedigree

Color Genes in the Poodle

Dog DNA study reveals new role for protein

Eliminating Mutation: 
The Impossible Dream

Gene Expression

Genetic Management
 of Dog Breed Populations

Genetic Structure of the Purebred Domestic Dog

Genetics and Evolution 101

Genetics and the Shape of Dogs

Incest in Nature

Lamarck Revisited
The Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics Gains Attention

Landraces

Musings

Nature vs. Nurture

Removing the Stigma
of Genetic Disease

The Downside of Inbreeding:
It's Time for a New Approach

The Effect of Inbreeding on the Immune System

The Ins and Outs of Pedigree Analysis,
Genetic Diversity and Genetic Disease Control

The Price of Popularity:
Popular Sires and Population Genetics

The Rising Storm

The Shallow End of the Gene Pool

Books

A Conservation Breeding Handbook

Born to Win Breed to Succeed

Breeding Better Dogs

Control of Canine Genetic Diseases

Genetics of the Dog

Molecular Biology of the Gene

Population Management for Survival
 and Recovery

The Dog and Its Genome

The Inheritance of Coat Color in Dogs

Websites

Breeding Better Dogs - Dr. Carmen Battaglia

MMI Genomics

What's New

For discussion on Genetics, go the the What's New blog and search on Genetics.

Beekeeping, written by Jim Selzer, Willowind Dalmations, posted October 11, 2003 on CANGEN,  is a beautiful example of the continual dance performed by Mother Nature. An avid student of genetics, in the past years Debby has been exploring population genetics, diversity principals, management of small populations and ways the modern dog breeder can utilize this knowledge in a breeding program. Historically, linebreeding, inbreeding, outcrossing, recessive and dominant inheritance have been the main lessons taught to dog breeders. It is time to explore beyond these basic lessons. In this spirit the following musings, articles, essays, editorials are offered for contemplation.

As purebred dog breeders, we have chosen to intervene in Mother Nature's intricate dance. Our responsibility, the future welfare of our breed, depends on our knowledge and our choices. Ir. E. J. Gubbels expands on this in his essay, Genetic Management of Dog Breed Populations:   

"Our breeding has now come to the point that we have to make choices.
1.    We must attune the use (the contribution to the next generation) of breeding animals to the size of the population. No single dog should have an impact on the genetic composition of subsequent generations such that 'genetic disasters' can arise.
2.    If we do this we can once again make effective use of the old method of 'individual selection', and take first steps towards genuine improvement of the health and well-being condition of the breeds.
3.    We will have to provide breeders with instruments that allow them to give steering to the level of inbreeding in their lines. The use of inbreeding can be advantageous in breeding, but it must remain an instrument rather than turn into an irreversible and unavoidable force.
4.    Over and above the individual selection that has been applied since 1900 we must make modern methods of selection available for dog breeding (breeding value estimates, genetic risk assessments).

In short, this means that we must first make sure that we do not add to our problems (1), that we next use currently available methods to work on improvement (2), that we must make haste to provide breeders with modern instruments to guide breeding with and to combat problems in our dogs (3 and 4). It is only then that we can justifiable talk about responsible genetic management of our pure-bred dog populations."

Roger Hild, in a cross posted message to the apsolist, dated October 1, 2003, presents an alternative view to our traditional thinking. I encourage you to read it here, as well as the articles on the left.