Genetics of Domesticated Behavior in Dogs and Foxes - Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals - page 357

Chapter 10
Genetics of Domesticated
Behavior in Dogs and Foxes
Anna V. Kukekova * , Lyudmila N. Trut † , and Gregory M. Acland ‡
*Department of Animal Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana,
IL, USA; † Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk,
Russia; ‡ Baker Institute for Animal Health, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
INTRODUCTION
This chapter offers an overview of recent studies in behavior and behavioral
genetics of dogs, wolves, and foxes with the aim of providing insight into
the complex structure of domesticated behavior in canids.
All domesticated animals have common behavioral features, becoming
not only tame to humans but showing lower levels of aggression toward
each other. It is not too much of a stretch to wonder if these behavioral fea-
tures have something in common with the species-specific differences
between the behavior of humans, and their two closest extant “cousin spe-
cies”—the chimpanzee and bonobo, leading to the suggestion that the evolu-
tion of modern humans may have been a process of self domestication
( Br¨ne, 2007; Hare et al., 2012; Shipman, 2010 ).
Behavior is a preeminent phenotype that drives and is driven by the
selective pressures of both domestication and evolution. Domestication is a
microcosm of evolution. Driven by directed or natural selection, it causes
divergence of a founder population into new populations that can exploit
new and/or different environmental niches. Once selection takes hold, the
genetic aspects of behavioral differences are reinforced, as specialized
subpopulations become better adapted to specific niches. Domestication thus
provides a window in which the processes involved in the genetics of behav-
ior can be observed at close range providing phenotypes that are accessible
to the modern tools of molecular genetics.
The intraspecific and interspecific (i.e. human directed) social behavior of
domesticated animals differs dramatically from their wild ancestors ( Price,
2002 ). The paradigmatic example is provided by the domesticated dog (Canis
familiaris) and its progenitor species, the gray wolf (Canis lupus). Although