Who’s ancestors got in his life already more than a breed of dog to face what is now a group of American anthropologists, psychologists, evolutionary biologists, and veterinarians in the laboratory, has measured The characteristic behavior of the various dog anchored in the genes of the animals breeds. Border Collies behave mostly like Border Collies, great Danes such as great Danes, and only rarely a German shepherd will flee when his human caregiver is threatened, but rather risk his own life – as German shepherds do.
What many already suspected, the Team of anthropologists and psychologists Evan MacLean of the University of Arizona is now in the most comprehensive analysis of dog genes confirmed once again. Compared to the behavior of 17’000 animals from one hundred races with the genome data of the dogs: they identified 131 genetic variation in the dog genome which have a special influence on 14 selected personality traits of the animals.
aggression be controlled in dogs and humans by similar genetic material.
alone, these genetic variants to determine Combined is approximately 15 percent of the behavior that is considered typical for a breed. How well the dogs exercise their hunting behavior and Aggression with Strangers and be assessed, particularly strong in the genes, the scientists write in their study, published on the website bioRxiv. There, professionals can discuss the results publicly, and criticize.
The discovered variants in the genome of the animals, especially in genes that are involved in the brain and neurological functions, as well as development processes in the organism. The researchers believe that their discovery also allows statements about the genetic roots of human behavior. Those genes, the Aggression in dogs control, similar to, for example, those who seem to be in people linked to it. Genes that allow dogs special trainability, are the same as the human genes that influence intelligence and information processing.
The dog genetics could help understand how human Suffering.
There seem to be genes, many types of similar traits influence. Most likely, these genes have a long, common development biological past, speculate Evan MacLean and his colleagues in their article. They hypothesize that the Similarities between human and canine behavior could be related to the long joint Evolution of the two species together, because “human Evolution and the domestication of the dog, have exercised a similar selection pressure”.
in this respect, the dog could help with genetics to understand how human Suffering, hope to the researchers. You write, dog breeds are a powerful model to study the genetic influence on behavior. “More than most of the other model organisms, dogs have a number of mental abilities and behavior that make them particularly interesting as a model for human social behavior and cognition.”
the Older studies had found a much lower genetic influence on behavior.
So you could try, for example, dog genes, which seem, according to the new work in a context of fear, in the human genome to track down. Perhaps the differ of patients with anxiety disorders from those with hardly any fear. “Such investigations would be possible in the future,” said the zoologist James Serpell, who was involved in the study, to the journal Science.
Although the group of researchers to quantify the influence of the found genetic variants on the behavior of the race only to about 15 percent, this value will appear to other experts as too high. Older studies had found a much lower genetic influence on behavior. So there is still enough room for Mr Chen and Mrs Chen, the behavior of your dog due to the own educational influence.
(editing Tamedia)
Created: 26.01.2019, 15:45 PM
