Study reveals secret to Bo Obama's good looks

America is already pretty smitten with the First Pooch, but now scientists have a better understanding of what makes Bo Obama so darn cute. The Portuguese Water Dog has variations in three key genes that give the canine and other dogs like him his curly tuxedo coat as well as his "furnishings," or mustache and large eyebrows. Among the key findings, researchers at the University of Utah discovered that the variant form of a gene called KRT71 determines whether a Portuguese Water Dog will have a wavy or curly coat.

"In just looking at his picture, Bo is curly," says Kevin Chase, a research specialist in biology at the University of Utah. "We don't actually have his DNA. We do have DNA from [the late Massachusetts Senator] Ted Kennedy's Portuguese Water Dog. We would be happy to include Bo's DNA in the future."