About the Authors

Kaisa Kyöstilä

Affiliations Research Programs Unit, Molecular Neurology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, Department of Veterinary Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, Department of Molecular Genetics, Folkhälsan Institute of Genetics, Helsinki, Finland

Anu K. Lappalainen

Affiliation Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

Hannes Lohi

hannes.lohi@helsinki.fi

Affiliations Research Programs Unit, Molecular Neurology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, Department of Veterinary Biosciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, Department of Molecular Genetics, Folkhälsan Institute of Genetics, Helsinki, Finland

Competing Interests

A DNA test is commercially available for the Norwegian Elkhound and Karelian Bear Dog breeds through Genoscoper Oy (Ltd), which is partly owned by HL. This does not alter our adherence to all the PLoS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: KK AKL HL. Performed the experiments: KK AKL. Analyzed the data: KK AKL HL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AKL HL. Wrote the paper: KK HL.