Genetic Research

Dogs

• Coat Color and Related Diseases

Cattle

• Coat Color and Related Diseases
• Beef Quality
• Polled, Horned, and Scurred
• Behavior
• Gene Mapping Using the Canadian Beef Reference Herd
• DNA Tests for Cattle

See other Research from the Sustainable Beef Research Group, of which Sheila Schmutz is a member.

This webpage was last updated on November 14, 2010 by Sheila Schmutz

Graduate Student Positions are available in Beef Cattle Molecular Genetics for May 2011.

Students from North and South America are invited to apply by sending a letter of interest by email to Dr. Sheila Schmutz or her colleague, Dr. Fiona Buchanan. A scan of her/his undergraduate transcript is also requested. Knowledge or experience in beef cattle is expected, or the desire to acquire and apply this is necessary. Although much of the research will occur in the laboratory, handling of beef cattle to obtain phenotypic trait measurements and DNA samples will also be part of the research. A research stipend at the rate suggested by the University of Saskatchewan is included.

Our lab has focussed most of its efforts on the genetics of traits related to beef cattle using molecular genetic approaches. We began by mapping genes but gradually moved towards mapping traits and attempting to find the causative mutation of some of these traits. The pages linked to this website focus on areas of our research interest, but some (primarily coat color) include the research of others.

In dogs, we study only coat color. This has grown to a major research focus in our lab over the years.

As part of an effort to make our research relevant to ranchers, a web based book "Genes for Cowboys" includes some of these pages as well as other pages on more basic information or areas in which we are not currently doing research. These were first mounted during fall 2002.