Blood biomarkers and breed genetics of aging in pet dogs

Aging trajectories vary widely among individuals, yet how genetic variation shapes lifespan remains poorly understood. Pet dogs share human-like environments while aging on a compressed timescale, making them a powerful translational model. Using genomic and phenotypic data from 7,627 dogs in the Dog Aging Project, including 976 profiled for 159 blood metabolites and clinical analytes, we generated the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) catalog in dogs. Most blood traits map to orthologous loci in dogs and humans, indicating conserved pathways. Breed explains substantial variance in blood traits, and selection on visible characteristics, such as fur type, has pleiotropic metabolic effects. Leveraging mosaic ancestry in mixed-breed dogs and longitudinal mortality data, we identify blood traits elevated in short-lived breeds that predict mortality risk, including globulin and potassium, and protective traits enriched in long-lived breeds, such as ethanolamine. Although some aging-..., , # Data from: Blood biomarkers and breed genetics of aging in pet dogs

The following archives contain data files associated with the manuscript:

Vista Sohrab, Michelle E. White, Benjamin R. Harrison, Rob Bierman, Abbey Marye, Kathleen Morrill Pirovich, Diane Genereux, Kate Megquier, Xue Li, Brittney Kenney, Cindy Reichel, Dog Aging Project Consortium, Noah Snyder-Mackler, Joshua M. Akey, Daniel E.L. Promislow, Frances Chen, Elinor K. Karlsson, Blood biomarkers and breed genetics of aging in pet dogs. *bioRxiv*. 2026.

## Data Files

### Genetic Data:

`dap_genetic_plinkset.zip` contains the 2023 genetic dataset of the Dog Aging Project in PLINK1 format. This genetic dataset was aligned to the canfam4 reference genome and imputed using the Dog10K imputation reference panel with GLIMPSE2.

#### Dog Aging Project Cohort

A *PLINK1* bfile set (.bed/.bim/.fam) with sample IDs encoded as dog IDs used by the Dog Aging Project, including genotypes from 7,627 dogs enrolled in the Dog Aging Proj..., , , **Changes after Mar 30, 2026:** Modifying header of README file

**Changes after Apr 13, 2026:**  Removal of raw baseline phenotype files and longitudinal metabolomic Rdata file