Genomic Regions Associated With Interspecies Communication in Dogs Contain Genes Related to Human Social Disorders

Abstract

Unlike their wolf ancestors, dogs have unique social skills for communicating and cooperating with humans. Previously, significant heritabilities for human-directed social behaviors have been found in laboratory beagles. Here, a Genome-Wide Association Study identified two genomic regions associated with dog’s human-directed social behaviors. We recorded the propensity of laboratory beagles, bred, kept and handled under standardized conditions, to initiate physical interactions with a human during an unsolvable problem-task, and 190 individuals were genotyped with an HD Canine SNP-chip. One genetic marker on chromosome 26 within the SEZ6L gene was significantly associated with time spent close to, and in physical contact with, the human. Two suggestive markers on chromosome 26, located within the ARVCF gene, were also associated with human contact seeking. Strikingly, four additional genes present in the same linkage blocks affect social abilities in humans, e.g., SEZ6L has been associated with autism and COMT affects aggression in adolescents with ADHD. This is, to our knowledge, the first genome-wide study presenting candidate genomic regions for dog sociability and inter-species communication. These results advance our understanding of dog domestication and raise the use of the dog as a novel model system for human social disorders.

Changed Patterns of Genomic Variation Following Recent Domestication: Selection Sweeps in Farmed Atlantic Salmon

“…In this study, arvcf was identified in a sweep region on Ssa20 in both Dataset 1 and 2. The gene was previously associated with dog sociability to humans (Persson et al, 2016), while a paralog of dclk1 (doublecortin like) termed dcx (doublecortin) was found in a separate sweep on chromosome 20 that has been associated with tameness in foxes (Huang et al, 2015). A selective sweep on Ssa24 spans sema6a that is under selection in domestic cattle (Qanbari et al, 2014).…”

Revisiting two hypotheses on the “domestication syndrome” in light of genomic data

“…The possibility that these specific traits are connected to deeper roots in animal sociality certainly merits further investigation. In addition, several genes in dogs that are associated specifically with dog-human social interactions have been implicated in humans as risk factors in neurological diseases affecting social interactions (autism and schizophrenia) (Persson et al, 2016). Ultimately, these sorts of investigations may lead to new insights on a matter that is receiving more and more attention, the question of whether humans can be regarded as a "self-domesticated" species (Brüne, 2007;Francis, 2015;Theofanopolou et al, 2017).…”

Domesticated dogs (Canis familiaris) tend to follow repeated deceptive human cues even when food is visible

“…We remain convinced that when an obviously non-baited container is repeatedly cued by a human, dogs have great difficulty learning to completely distrust that person, still selecting the cued and empty container on about half of the trials. Dogs have been bred for thousands of years with attention directed to cues given by humans likely being a trait selected for in this breeding (Erdohegyi, Topal, Viranyi, & Miklosi, 2007;Miklosi et al, 2005;Perrson, Wright, Roth, Batakis, & Jensen, 2016). The survival value of such devotion to humans is, however, questionable.…”