Human and Domesticated Species (Critical Review)

Abstract

The agrarian civilization was formed due to the domestication of mainly five species of mammals (goat, sheep, cattle, pig, horse) and a limited number of plant species, the main of which are wheat and rice. This small number of species has remained the basis of the agrarian civilization to this day, despite the ongoing attempts to domesticate other wild species. By now, it has become clear that domestication is one of the variants of mutualistic relationships between humans and the corresponding species. It may well explain the limited number of species that have been successfully involved in domestication, since the possibilities of "symbiosis" with humans are highly species-specific. Hence, it becomes obvious that the loss of the diversity of the gene pools of agricultural species is fundamentally irreplaceable, as well as the degradation of soils, the biosphere and is a direct threat to the existence of agricultural civilization, since these species historically lay at the basis of its existence and development. From this point of view, the preservation of the biodiversity of agricultural species becomes a critical condition for the existence of an agrarian civilization in the future. Mechanisms of domestication are a key issue in understanding and managing the genetic resources of agricultural animal and plant species. The review examines the basis for the formation of an agrarian civilization, which is due to the activity of humans to involve other species in his niche, which contribute to increasing his adaptive and reproductive potential. A significant contribution to this process was made by factors related to human social activity, his cognitive functions and his ability to purposefully study and control various characteristics of the species involved in domestication. The main signs included in the "domestication syndrome" in animals are associated with their social activity and genomic instability. Their variability, which creates the basis for selection, depends on the diversity of the microbiota and the closely related virom. The formation of a mobilome in genomes based on virom creates the material basis for phenotypic diversity, which allows for targeted selection based on the adaptive potential of animals and plants to the niche created by man, as well as on various

THE SOURCES OF GENOME VARIABILITY AS DOMESTICATION DRIVERS (review)

“…Необходимо отметить, что достаточно часто и у растений, и у животных характеристики, которые относят к синдромам доместикации, ассоциированы с полиморфизмом разных генов, которые при этом участвуют в сходных метаболических путях, что ожидаемо, поскольку большинство признаков синдрома доместикации полигенные (8).…”