I was always aware that I was allergic to RED dogs. Any other color dog has
never bothered me. And worse yet, if a red dog licks me, I break out in
hives.

I never understood this.

But I was reading in Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1030133907.htm
about coat color being determined by protein.
If this is so, It may explain my allergy to red dogs. How interesting!
It may also explain why other people are allergic to one dog and not another.
I always thought it was dander related. (which never explained my allergy
to just RED dogs)

diddy wrote:
I was always aware that I was allergic to RED dogs. Any other color dog has
never bothered me. And worse yet, if a red dog licks me, I break out in
hives.

I never understood this.

But I was reading in Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1030133907.htm
about coat color being determined by protein.
If this is so, It may explain my allergy to red dogs. How interesting!
It may also explain why other people are allergic to one dog and not another.
I always thought it was dander related. (which never explained my allergy
to just RED dogs)

That's really the bottom line for genes - they code for the
formation of proteins. If you break out in hives when a red dog
licks you, you're most likely reacting to a protein in the dog's
saliva. If you start sneezing whenever you enter a room where a
red dog has been, you're most likely reacting to proteins in
dried up bits of saliva that remain in the room, on the hair, on
the skin flakes. (I have a similar reaction to Siamese cats.)

Coat color can be just one manifestation of a gene. Rather than
trying to explain this myself (I'm an amateur here), I'm going to
give you a web link that talks about mice with the agouti gene,
which affects not only coat color but also participates in
regulation of body weight and CVD and diabetes. (This link is
really about epigenetics - what controls the turning on and off
of genes, a whole 'nuther fascination.)

http://discovermagazine.com/2006/nov.../article_print


FurPaw

--
Don't believe everything that you think.

To reply, unleash the dog.

FurPaw spoke these words of wisdom in news:glpqsu
:

http://discovermagazine.com/2006/nov.../article_print

Wow! is that ever interesting.

But for now, I'll just avoid red dogs

thanks for the link!

Coat color can be just one manifestation of a gene. Rather than trying to
explain this myself (I'm an amateur here), I'm going to give you a web
link that talks about mice with the agouti gene, which affects not only
coat color but also participates in regulation of body weight and CVD and
diabetes. (This link is really about epigenetics - what controls the
turning on and off of genes, a whole 'nuther fascination.)

http://discovermagazine.com/2006/nov.../article_print

Epigenetics is probably about one of the coolest things. I've been told of
studies involving large scale events (like the 30s, or wide spread
alcoholism in native american populations, and other controlled
multigenerational studies), that can have shown some pretty cool results
along the lines of things like inheritence from the grandmother, and things
like that.

Dale

diddy wrote:

I was always aware that I was allergic to RED dogs. Any other color dog has
never bothered me. And worse yet, if a red dog licks me, I break out in
hives.

I never understood this.

But I was reading in Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1030133907.htm
about coat color being determined by protein.
If this is so, It may explain my allergy to red dogs. How interesting!
It may also explain why other people are allergic to one dog and not another.
I always thought it was dander related. (which never explained my allergy
to just RED dogs)

Wow. Cool.

I haven't noticed being more or less allergic to red dogs. I'm not all
that fond of red BCs, but that's just about esthetics. To me they look
sort of watered down, and IIRC, genetically they actually are dilutes.

Cooper, however, seems to have a grudge against red dogs, regardless of
breed, sex or size. I wonder if they just smell "wrong" to him.

Kathleen said in
rec.pets.dogs.health:

I'm not all
that fond of red BCs,

Plonk!!1

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.