Title
Ancestry-inclusive dog genomics challenges popular breed stereotypes
UMMS Affiliation
Program in Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology; Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; Program in Molecular Medicine
Publication Date
2022-04-29
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology | Bioinformatics | Computational Biology | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Genetics and Genomics | Integrative Biology | Systems Biology
Abstract
Behavioral genetics in dogs has focused on modern breeds, which are isolated subgroups with distinctive physical and, purportedly, behavioral characteristics. We interrogated breed stereotypes by surveying owners of 18,385 purebred and mixed-breed dogs and genotyping 2155 dogs. Most behavioral traits are heritable [heritability (h(2)) > 25%], and admixture patterns in mixed-breed dogs reveal breed propensities. Breed explains just 9% of behavioral variation in individuals. Genome-wide association analyses identify 11 loci that are significantly associated with behavior, and characteristic breed behaviors exhibit genetic complexity. Behavioral loci are not unusually differentiated in breeds, but breed propensities align, albeit weakly, with ancestral function. We propose that behaviors perceived as characteristic of modern breeds derive from thousands of years of polygenic adaptation that predates breed formation, with modern breeds distinguished primarily by aesthetic traits.
DOI of Published Version
10.1126/science.abk0639
Source
Morrill K, Hekman J, Li X, McClure J, Logan B, Goodman L, Gao M, Dong Y, Alonso M, Carmichael E, Snyder-Mackler N, Alonso J, Noh HJ, Johnson J, Koltookian M, Lieu C, Megquier K, Swofford R, Turner-Maier J, White ME, Weng Z, Colubri A, Genereux DP, Lord KA, Karlsson EK. Ancestry-inclusive dog genomics challenges popular breed stereotypes. Science. 2022 Apr 29;376(6592):eabk0639. doi: 10.1126/science.abk0639. Epub 2022 Apr 29. PMID: 35482869. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Science (New York, N.Y.)
Related Resources
PubMed ID
35482869
Repository Citation
Morrill K, Li X, McClure J, Logan B, Gao M, Dong Y, Carmichael E, White ME, Weng Z, Colubri A, Lord KA, Karlsson EK. (2022). Ancestry-inclusive dog genomics challenges popular breed stereotypes. Program in Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology Publications. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abk0639. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/bioinformatics_pubs/180
Comments
Full author list omitted for brevity. For the full list of authors, see article.