Is there a genetic test for Ligneous Membranitis (Discovered in the Scottish Terrier)?

Ligneous Membranitis (Discovered in the Scottish Terrier) is associated with the PLG gene. Where a validated DNA test for the causal variant is available, it can identify dogs carrying the variant before breeding. Per-breed variant frequency figures are published in the Sniff Atlas (242,665 dogs screened).

What is the human equivalent of Ligneous Membranitis (Discovered in the Scottish Terrier)?

OMIA links Ligneous Membranitis (Discovered in the Scottish Terrier) to its human counterpart in OMIM (OMIM 217090), the bridge to the deeper human-medicine literature for the same underlying biology.

Canine Mendelian disease record

Ligneous Membranitis (Discovered in the Scottish Terrier)

Q: How is Ligneous Membranitis (Discovered in the Scottish Terrier) inherited in dogs?

Ligneous Membranitis (Discovered in the Scottish Terrier) follows a Autosomal recessive inheritance pattern, associated with the PLG gene.

Q: How well studied is Ligneous Membranitis (Discovered in the Scottish Terrier) in dogs?

OMIA curates 12 peer-reviewed references for Ligneous Membranitis (Discovered in the Scottish Terrier). The full, linked citation list is on this page.

Ligneous Membranitis (Discovered in the Scottish Terrier). Autosomal recessive. Observed in 0 of 266 breeds tested in the Sniff Atlas, with measured variant frequencies drawn from 242,665 dogs (Donner 2023). Whether a dog carrying this variant is at risk depends on the disease’s inheritance pattern; outcome also depends on penetrance, modifiers, and environment. The frequencies below describe variant prevalence, not confirmed disease incidence.

OMIA identifier: OMIA:002020-9615
Inheritance: Autosomal recessive
Linked gene: PLG
Human counterpart: In humans, this gene is PLG. OMIM 173350 In people, variants in the PLG gene have conflicting classifications in ClinVar, and none is expert-reviewed. The evidence is unsettled, not that variants here are benign.
Source dataset: Sniff Atlas v1.0.1 / DOI

The human connection

A model of human hypoplasminogenemia

Dogs with this condition carry a change in PLG. In people, changes in the same gene cause hypoplasminogenemia. That makes affected dogs a naturally-occurring model of the human disease, and it is part of why studying dogs moves medicine forward for everyone. It does not mean your dog has the human disease. It means the two share an underlying biology.

In people, the disease is described as: A rare multi-system disease characterized by markedly impaired extracellular fibrinolysis leading to the formation of ligneous (fibrin-rich) pseudomembranes on mucosae.

In humans it is also called: ligneous conjunctivitis, plasminogen deficiency type 1, plasminogen deficiency, type 1, plasminogen deficiency, type I, type 1 plasminogen deficiency.

MONDO:0009009 OMIM 217090 Mechanism (DisMech) →

Human mechanism pathograph for Hypoplasminogenemia is curated in DisMech (Monarch Initiative), joined by exact Mondo id. That page is about people. It is not a treatment plan for a dog.

Mapped from OMIA via the human disease's OMIM entry to the Mondo Disease Ontology (Monarch Initiative, CC-BY 4.0). Sniff renders this as a model-of link; the canine disease remains the subject of this page.

About this disease

From OMIA's curated record

Documented in OMIA (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals). This describes the disease as recorded in the published literature, not a prediction for any individual dog. As of 2026-06-03.

Summary

Ainsworth et al. (2015) "Ligneous membranitis (LM) is a rare chronic inflammatory condition of the mucous membranes associated with plasminogen (encoded by PLG) deficiency in affected humans and dogs. ... We identified related Scottish Terriers (littermates) with severe LM and unaffected relatives (sire, dam and a sibling from a previous litter). ... Sequencing of PLG from the affected dogs revealed a homozygous A>T single nucleotide polymorphism in an intron donor site (c.1256+2T>A)." Turba et al. (2021): "LM was diagnosed in a 7-month-old male Maltese dog. The dog was examined for severe recurrent conjunctivitis. A diagnosis of ligneous conjunctivitis was made by an ophthalmologist after a thorough eye examination and was confirmed by a complete lack of plasma activity of plasminogen. The main local signs were redness of the conjunctiva with persistent membranes having ligneous (wood-like) membranes on the eyes. The disease was associated with a complex rearrangement involving the plasminogen gene loci, causing the complete deletion of exon 1."

Molecular genetics

Ainsworth et al. (2015): an A>T SNP in an intron donor site (c.1256+2T>A) Turba et al. (2021): a deletion of 5986 bp involving exon 1 and the flanking region

Human analog

OMIA links this condition to its human counterpart in OMIM (Mendelian Inheritance in Man), the place to read across to the deeper human literature for the same biology.

Disease · OMIM 217090 Gene · OMIM 173350

Source: OMIA (Nicholas, Tammen & the Sydney Informatics Hub), entry OMIA:002020-9615, doi:10.25910/2AMR-PV70 (CC-BY 4.0).

The evidence

Published references

The peer-reviewed papers behind this disease, curated by OMIA. Starred entries are OMIA-designated landmark papers. Showing 6 of 12.

Genetics of inherited skin disorders in dogs. · Vet J · 2022 · PMID 34861369
A large deletion in the plasminogen gene is associated with ligneous membranitis in a Maltese dog. · Anim Genet · 2021 · PMID 34370320
The Blue Book: Ocular disorders presumed to be inherited in purebred dogs. 13th Edition · https://ofa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ACVO-Blue-Book-2021.pdf · 2021
Features and outcome of a glomerulonephropathy associated with ligneous conjunctivitis in a Doberman pinscher dog. · Can Vet J · 2016 · PMID 27152037
Presentation, clinical pathological and post-mortem findings in three related Scottish terriers with ligneous membranitis. · J Small Anim Pract · 2016 · PMID 26840763
Ligneous membranitis in Scottish Terriers is associated with a single nucleotide polymorphism in the plasminogen (PLG) gene. · Anim Genet · 2015 · PMID 26360520

References curated by OMIA (Nicholas, Tammen & the Sydney Informatics Hub), doi:10.25910/2AMR-PV70 (CC-BY 4.0). Full list at the OMIA entry.

Your breed

See what Ligneous Membranitis (Discovered in the Scottish Terrier) looks like in your dog's breed.

Variant frequency by breed

Observed only in small-sample breeds

Maximum variant frequency per breed across variants in the Donner 2023 cohort, with Wilson 95% confidence intervals. The list below is split into well-sampled breeds (n ≥ 50 tested) and small-sample breeds (n < 50, where the Wilson CI typically spans more than 20 percentage points and frequencies should not be compared directly to the well-sampled entries). Frequencies are population-level, not per-litter or per-line.

Scope of this record

This record carries the breed-level carrier frequencies from the Donner 2023 cohort. Penetrance data (the fraction of at-risk dogs that develop the phenotype) is not yet quantified for this disease in the Sniff Atlas v1.0.1. The OMIA entry is the authoritative reference for the clinical phenotype, inheritance pattern, and gene assignment.

Predicted disease relevance at the per-dog level is UNPROVEN. The variant frequency is measured; phenotype outcome depends on penetrance, environment, and modifier loci. Consult a veterinarian for clinical interpretation.

How to cite this record

If you use this record in published work, cite the Sniff Atlas (the published dataset that carries the breed-level carrier frequencies) and the upstream sources:

Sniff Atlas v1.0.1 for the per-breed carrier frequencies:
Gehring, M. (2026). Sniff Atlas v1.0.1. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20566358. CC-BY 4.0.
OMIA for the disease definition, inheritance, and gene assignment:
Nicholas, F. W., & Tammen, I. (2024). OMIA. Sydney Informatics Hub, The University of Sydney. https://doi.org/10.25910/2AMR-PV70. Entry: OMIA:002020-9615.
Donner et al. 2023 for the breed × variant carrier-frequency cohort:
Donner, J., Freyer, J., Davison, S., Anderson, H., Blades, M., Honkanen, L., et al. (2023). Genetic prevalence and clinical relevance of canine Mendelian disease variants in over one million dogs. PLOS Genetics, 19(2), e1010651. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1010651.

Full citation formats (BibTeX, RIS, CITATION.cff) at sniff.world/cite.

Gene page: PLG, cited identity, disease associations, and the human-gene bridge.
Sniff Atlas v1.0.1, the source dataset for these frequencies.
Browse breeds, per-breed Mendelian profiles, including this disease in context.
OMIA entry OMIA:002020-9615, authoritative clinical reference.
About OMIA, the catalogue this record comes from, and how Sniff uses it.

Last updated July 20, 2026

Sources: Sniff Atlas v1.0.1 · OMIA OMIA:002020-9615 · Donner et al. 2023 · ClinVar (Landrum 2018)