Does wolf's genome contains, suppressed, all the genes that are responsible for any dog breed particularities? Or does exist some alleles (not neutral) that have arisen later, after the domestication?
question on wolf's genome
- Thread starter Buckaroo Banzai
- Start date
Yes.
<small>(<U>Disclaimer</U>: I’m no evolutionary biologist.)</small>
I would guess that it’s a bit of both. It seems that the act of domestication (in animals) brings about a state of ‘pedomorphosis’ ie. the retention of juvenile phenotypic traits. (See the link for more info.) I would say that this is as a result of selective breeding altering of the frequency of already existing alleles and a shift in the expression of those alleles. Once domesticated, mutations that result in a desirable domestication trait will be selected for whereas the same mutation would probably not be selected for in the wild. So as time and generations progress, new alleles will arise in the domesticated sub-species.
See here for interesting info:
Evolution and Domestication: Selection on Developmental Genes? (from "A companion to Developmental Biology" (7th Ed) by Scott F. Gilbert<P>
Danniel said:
I would guess that it’s a bit of both. It seems that the act of domestication (in animals) brings about a state of ‘pedomorphosis’ ie. the retention of juvenile phenotypic traits. (See the link for more info.) I would say that this is as a result of selective breeding altering of the frequency of already existing alleles and a shift in the expression of those alleles. Once domesticated, mutations that result in a desirable domestication trait will be selected for whereas the same mutation would probably not be selected for in the wild. So as time and generations progress, new alleles will arise in the domesticated sub-species.
See here for interesting info:
Evolution and Domestication: Selection on Developmental Genes? (from "A companion to Developmental Biology" (7th Ed) by Scott F. Gilbert<P>
All dogs evolved - not from wolves - but from the ancestor of wolves, coyotes, and foxes. Coyotes branced off first - not sure about fox - then dogs. So in a sense you CAN say that all dogs are descendants from wolves and the artificial selection of crossbreeding established the current differences in dog breeds. Most Northern breed dogs - Huskies, Samoyeds, Norwegian Elkhounds, dogs in the Spitz family - are the most closely related to the wolf ancestor, although the oldest breed is now said to be the Chow Chow from China.