Basenji
40 Basenjis in the atlas. Every number on this page has a source.
40 Basenjis in the Sniff Atlas. Population-genetic snapshot, Mendelian carrier frequencies from Donner 2023, and the data substrate's release version, sample sizes, and evidence tier on every claim.
In the atlas, the Basenji clusters consistently as Basenji (100% of the 40 dogs here). At the trait loci, MSRB3 runs lower than average (10% here vs 80%); FGF4_retrogene_CFA18 runs lower than average (15% here vs 77%). Dogs here sit in a relatively sparse region of the atlas, fewer close neighbors than typical.
Ranks 13 of 107 on the bottleneck severity scale, well into the upper quartile of population contraction. High breed predictability score (3.02), individual dogs of this breed reliably cluster together genetically.
Closest genetic neighbors in the atlas: village dog Drc Boende, village dog Liberia Lofa, village dog Namibia Northern, village dog Egypt Luxor, and village dog Uganda. AKC classifies the breed in the hound group; the corrected top-10-PC distance places it nearer to the ancient landrace group. This is one of the atlas's strong-tier AKC mismatch findings.
Median lifespan is 15.55 years, about 3.0 years longer than a typical dog of 10.25 kg, an unusually positive longevity for this size.
What the genome says about Basenji
Computed from the 18,477 research dogs in the Atlas.
- Village Dog Drc Boende27.23
- Village Dog Liberia Lofa36.72
- Village Dog Namibia Northern37.60
- Village Dog Egypt Luxor40.08
- Village Dog Uganda42.79
Frequency of the alternate allele in this breed at each locus's representative SNP.
| IGF1 | 93% |
| HMGA2 | 95% |
| SMAD2 | 48% |
| LCORL | 49% |
| STC2 | 17% |
| ADAMTS17 | 86% |
| FGF4·CFA18 | 15% |
| FGF4·CFA12 | 94% |
| RSPO2 | 93% |
| FGF5 | 74% |
| KRT71 | 88% |
| MC1R | 89% |
| MSRB3 | 10% |
| BMP3 | 95% |
| SMOC2 | 90% |
What does the genome say about how a Basenji looks?
Basenjis look the way they do because of a small set of fixed and near-fixed morphology genes that, taken together, define the visible breed. Each translation below pairs the gene with the trait an owner actually sees, the breed's allele frequency at that locus, and a one-clause causal phrase.
Size and build
IGF1 is near-fixed at 93% for the small-body allele, which keeps the breed compact relative to its working-line ancestors.
HMGA2 is near-fixed at 95%, reinforcing the breed's size signal through a second locus on chromosome 10.
SMAD2 sits at 48% at the chromosome-7 height locus.
LCORL sits at 49% at the NCAPG/LCORL height locus on chromosome 3.
STC2 is at 17%, leaving the growth-axis signal to other loci.
ADAMTS17 is at 86%, near-fixed for the size variant.
Leg length
The FGF4 retrogene on chromosome 18 is at 15%, the chromosome-18 leg-length variant, which keeps the breed short-legged like Corgis and Dachshunds.
The FGF4 retrogene on chromosome 12 is near-fixed at 94%, the chondrodystrophic variant associated with intervertebral disc disease risk in breeds that carry it.
Coat type, length, and color
RSPO2 is near-fixed at 93% for the furnishings allele, the genetic basis of the eyebrows-and-mustache pattern seen in Schnauzers and Wheaten Terriers.
FGF5 sits at 74% for the long-coat variant. Coat length is influenced by other loci as well, so intermediate FGF5 frequencies do not always correspond to intermediate visible coat lengths.
KRT71 is near-fixed at 88% for the wavy/curly variant. Coat curl phenotype varies across breeds at this fixation depending on modifier loci, and visible expression is not always curled even when the locus is fixed.
MC1R is at 89% at the representative SNP. MC1R controls the switch between red-to-gold and black-to-brown pigment, with the e/e homozygous genotype producing the gold-to-red spectrum by blocking eumelanin (black and brown pigment).
Ears
MSRB3 is at 10% for the drop-ear allele, keeping the breed's ears upright and prick.
Skull shape
BMP3 is at 95%, contributing to the breed's brachycephalic skull shape.
SMOC2 is at 90%, the major locus contributing to the breed's brachycephalic face shape.
What genetic diseases do Basenjis carry?
From a panel of 250 Mendelian-disease variants screened in 1,054,293 dogs (Donner et al. 2023), Basenjis carry 2 of them at observable frequency. Carrier frequency is not clinical risk. Most recessive variants require two copies for disease expression; many dominant variants show incomplete penetrance. Read this as a population fingerprint of what's in the gene pool, not a per-dog prediction.
Where every number on this page came from.
This page draws on three primary data sources. Carrier frequencies for the Mendelian section come from Donner et al. 2023 (CC-BY-4.0). We grade these data at evidence Limited because the cohort is a direct-to-consumer ascertainment, which biases toward owners who chose to test their dogs. The panel also uses tag-SNP proxies for some variants rather than direct causal-variant assays. Limited is a study-design grade, not a quality grade: the Donner cohort is the largest open canine-genotype dataset in existence and we are grateful for it. We rate the confounding MEDIUM.
Population-genetic dimensions (heterozygosity, intra-breed PCA distance, nearest neighbors, trait-locus frequencies) come from CanVAS (Brundage 2026), harmonized through the Sniff Atlas. The exact release date and verification commit are pinned at the bottom of the page so a researcher can trace a number back to a specific snapshot. The disease-gene-variant graph comes from OMIA (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals; Nicholas, Tammen, and the Sydney Informatics Hub at the Sydney School of Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney; retrieved April 2026, DOI 10.25910/2AMR-PV70).
What this page does not yet have. Inheritance modes and per-disease penetrance evidence from Donner 2023 are now in the structured data for every variant the panel covers. Mondo, OMIM, Ensembl, and HGNC cross-references on gene pages remain pending — they arrive in December 2026 alongside the imputed 9.67M-variant CanVAS dataset via the OMIA SQL dump absorption. Until then, gene IDs carry NCBI Gene and OMIA phene URLs only; the wider human-homolog and disease-ontology cross-reference set fills in with that release.
How to cite this page. The computed dimensions on this page are derived from the open Sniff Atlas v1.0.1 (Gehring 2026, doi:10.5281/zenodo.20566358, CC-BY 4.0). Full citation formats including BibTeX, RIS, and CITATION.cff at sniff.world/cite.
We have 40 basenjis. We do not have yours.
Every basenji added sharpens the breed's genetic neighborhood. Enrollment is free. The data stays open. The star is permanent.
- Donner J, Anderson H, Davison S, et al. (2023). Frequency and distribution of 152 genetic disease variants in over 1,000,000 mixed-breed and purebred dogs. PLOS Genetics 19(2):e1010651. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1010651
- Brundage J, et al. (2026). CanVAS: a harmonized canine variant atlas. bioRxiv. doi:10.64898/2026.04.13.718238
- Nicholas, F.W., Tammen, I., & Sydney Informatics Hub. (2026). Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA) [dataset]. The University of Sydney. https://omia.org. doi:10.25910/2AMR-PV70 (retrieved April 2026).