English Setter
192 English Setters in the atlas. Every number on this page has a source.
192 English Setters 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 English Setter clusters consistently as English Setter (100% of the 192 dogs here). At the trait loci, RSPO2 runs lower than average (4% here vs 55%); SMAD2 runs lower than average (24% here vs 74%).
Ranks 7 of 107 on the bottleneck severity scale, among the most genetically contracted breeds in the atlas.
Closest genetic neighbors in the atlas: American Cocker Spaniel, Vizsla, Gordon Setter, Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
What the genome says about English Setter
Computed from the 18,477 research dogs in the Atlas.
- American Cocker Spaniel5.94
- Vizsla7.33
- Gordon Setter7.64
- Wirehaired Pointing Griffon7.66
- Cavalier King Charles Spaniel7.67
Frequency of the alternate allele in this breed at each locus's representative SNP.
| IGF1 | 38% |
| HMGA2 | 95% |
| SMAD2 | 24% |
| LCORL | 96% |
| STC2 | 91% |
| ADAMTS17 | 87% |
| FGF4·CFA18 | 54% |
| FGF4·CFA12 | 77% |
| RSPO2 | 4% |
| FGF5 | 96% |
| KRT71 | 100% |
| MC1R | 97% |
| MSRB3 | 99% |
| BMP3 | 98% |
| SMOC2 | 97% |
What does the genome say about how a English Setter looks?
English Setters 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 sits at 38% for the small-body allele. IGF1 is the gene that sets dog body size from Chihuahua to Great Dane. Intermediate frequencies typically keep a breed in the mid-sized range rather than tipping toward the larger working forms.
HMGA2 is near-fixed at 95%, reinforcing the breed's size signal through a second locus on chromosome 10.
SMAD2 is at 24%, leaving the height signal mostly to other size genes.
LCORL is near-fixed at 96%, the NCAPG/LCORL height locus that is one of the strongest single contributors to canine body size.
STC2 is near-fixed at 91%, modulating growth-axis signaling toward the breed's body-size set point.
ADAMTS17 is at 87%, near-fixed for the size variant.
Leg length
The FGF4 retrogene on chromosome 18 sits at 54%. This is the leg-length variant. The intermediate frequency means some dogs in this breed carry the short-legged allele and some do not.
The FGF4 retrogene on chromosome 12 sits at 77%, the chondrodystrophic variant.
Coat type, length, and color
RSPO2 is at 4% for the furnishings allele. The breed does not carry the eyebrows-and-mustache pattern of Wheatens, Schnauzers, or wire-haired terriers.
FGF5 is at 96% for the long-coat variant, which is why the breed's coat sits where it does on the long end of the dog coat-length spectrum.
KRT71 is near-fixed at 100% 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 97% 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 99% for the drop-ear allele, the genetic basis of the breed's signature dropped ear set.
Skull shape
BMP3 is at 98%, contributing to the breed's brachycephalic skull shape.
SMOC2 is at 97%, the major locus contributing to the breed's brachycephalic face shape.
What genetic diseases do English Setters carry?
From a panel of 250 Mendelian-disease variants screened in 1,054,293 dogs (Donner et al. 2023), English Setters carry 3 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 192 english setters. We do not have yours.
Every english setter 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).