Dr. Leigh Anne Clark

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. Genetics
2004, Texas A&M University

Research Interests
Canine Genetics

Office: 312 Biosystems Research Complex
Phone: (864) 656-4696
Email: lclark4@clemson.edu

 

Research Activities

My laboratory studies canine inherited diseases to 1) improve the health and quality of life for dogs and 2) use the dog as a model to better understand the genetics underlying mammalian hereditary diseases. Dog breeds are homogenous populations that exhibit unrivaled phenotypic diversity and present unique opportunities for analysis of both simple and complex traits. Specifically, my research concerns the developmental genetics of canine pigmentation patterns. One focus of this work is merle, a semi-dominant coat pattern characterized by patches of full pigment on a dilute background. Dogs homozygous for merle (Figure 1) exhibit auditory and ocular anomalies that are phenotypically similar to those of Waardenburg Syndrome type 2 in the human. Another focus is harlequin coat patterning, a bigenic trait resulting from the interaction of the harlequin locus and the merle locus. Harlequin is a dominant modifier of merle that removes the dilute pigment and is embryonic lethal in the homozygous state. Another facet of my research concerns three prominent diseases of the German Shepherd Dog: 1) pancreatic acinar atrophy, a disorder that causes exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, 2) degenerative myelopathy, a neurodegenerative disease that causes hind limb paralysis and 3) megaesophagus, a congenital dysfunction of the esophagus that causes neonatal mortality. To dissect the genetic bases for these disorders my laboratory employs various tools to carry out genome-wide association studies. A major goal of our research is to develop commercially available tests to allow for early detection of disease and enable breeders to eliminate affected and carrier dogs from breeding programs.

Recent Publications

Strain, G, Clark, LA, Wahl, JM, Turner, A and Murphy, KE (2009). Prevalence of deafness in dogs heterozygous or homozygous for the merle allele. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 23: 282-286.

Clark, LA, Starr, AN, Tsai, KL and Murphy, KE (2008). Genome-wide linkage scan localizes the harlequin locus in the Great Dane to chromosome 9. Gene 418 (1-2): 49-52.

Clark, LA, Wahl, JM, Rees, CA, Strain, GM, Cargill, EJ, Vanderlip, SL and Murphy, KE (2008). Canine SINEs and their effects on phenotypes of the domestic dog. In: Genomics of Disease. Ed: JP Gustafson, J Taylor, G Stacey. New York, New York. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC: 79-88.

Clark, LA, Tsai, KL and Murphy, KE (2008). Alleles of DLA-DRB1 are not unique in German Shepherd Dogs having degenerative myelopathy. Animal Genetics 39 (3): 332.
 
Wahl, JM, Clark, LA, Skalli, O, Ambrus, A, Rees, CA, Mansell, JL and Murphy, KE (2008). Analysis of gene transcript profiling and immunobiology in Shetland sheepdogs with dermatomyositis. Veterinary Dermatology 19 (2): 52-58.