About Chromosome Browser

Chromosomes are tightly packed threads of DNA. The number of chromosomes vary between species with dogs having 39 chromosome pairs - one of which determines biological sex, but is not shown in this illustration. Of each pair, one chromosome comes from the mother and one from the father. For example, if one of your dog's parents was a Golden Retriever and the other was a Poodle, your dog (a Goldendoodle!) should show one copy of Poodle for each chromosome pair.

Chromosome Browser uses different colors to indicate which parts of each chromosome came from the breeds in your dog's ancestry. The more complex the color combination, the more complex your dog's ancestry! This is because chromosomes shuffle and recombine each generation, resulting in mixed pieces of chromosomes from your dog's ancestors. Generally, the longer a run of a single color along a chromosome, the more recent the connection to that particular breed.

Recombination results in chromosomal segments mixed from your dog's ancestors.

Your dog's coat type, eye color and other physical traits, such as size, are determined (or in some cases strongly influenced) by different parts of specific chromosomes. For example, curly coat is determined by a DNA variant located on chromosome 27. This means your dog's traits came from inheriting specific chromosome segments. This can help explain why certain aspects of your dog resemble one breed more than another.