The wolves prowling North America's forests may owe their success and the dark colour of their coats to the domesticated dog.
Greg Barsh of Stanford University in California and his colleagues looked at the DNA of 265 white, grey and black wolves and found that the mutation responsible for black coats seems to have been acquired from hybridization with man's best friend. They prefer this theory to that of dogs acquiring dark coats from wolves because the most recent common ancestor of wolves with the crucial KB -bearing chromosomes lived later than the most recent common ancestor of dogs.
Because there is positive selection for KB -bearing chromosomes in forest-dwelling wolves, domestic dogs may have contributed to the viability of wild wolf populations.
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Genetics: Shady dealings. Nature 457, 766 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/457766c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/457766c
