The essentiality of sulfate for proper bone and cartilage formation is demonstrated by the spectrum of osteochondrodysplasias in humans with homozygous, loss-of-function mutations in SLC26A2 (Hastbacka et al. 1996; Hastbacka et al. 1999; OMIMb 2015), as well as dog and sheep with homozygous loss-of-function mutations in Slc13a1 (Neff et al. 2012; Zhao et al. 2012). This evidence concerns the gene SLC13A1 and osteochondrodysplasia.