Genetic Difference Found in Wild vs. Tame Animals

[Freakzilla]

Jeanna Bryner
Senior Writer
LiveScience.com
livescience.com – 2 hrs 46 mins ago


A study of nasty and nice lab rats has scientists on the verge of knowing the genes that separate wild animals like lions and wolves from their tame cousins, cats and dogs.


Unlike their wild ancestors, house pets and other domesticated animals share the trait of tameness, meaning they tolerate or even seek out human presence. New research, which is published in the June issue of the journal Genetics and involved the interbreeding of friendly and aggressive rats, reveals gene regions that influence the opposing behaviors.


"I hope our study will ultimately lead to a detailed understanding of the genetics and biology of tameness," said researcher Frank Albert of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. "Maybe we'll then be able to domesticate a few of those species where humans have historically not been successful like the wild African Buffalo."


And we can possibly understand more about the furry creatures in our homes.


"If you think about dogs, they are such amazing animals. When you compare a dog with a wild wolf, a wolf has no interest in communicating [with] or tolerating humans," Albert told LiveScience. "If you're lucky a wolf in the wild wouldn't care about you. But a dog does care and they even seek human presence."


He added, "Dogs were all wolves at some point. How did they become these animals that need humans to exist?"


Breeding rats


The roots of this study date back to 1972 when researchers in Novosibirsk, in what is now Russia, caught a large group of wild rats around the city. Back at the lab, the researchers arbitrarily separated the rats into two groups. In one group, called the tame rats, the scientists then mated the friendliest rats, those that tolerated humans, with one another, and in the other group they mated the most aggressive rats with each other.


Demeanor in rats is tested with the glove test, in which a human hand protected by a metal glove approaches a caged rat. The tame rats tolerate the hand and even sometimes toddle across it. Aggressive rats try to escape, scream, attack and bite the person's hand. The rats even perform boxing moves, standing on their hind legs while sort of punching the human hand away.


The experiment is going on to this day, with two generations bred each year, resulting in a team of extremely tame rats and a team of very aggressive ones.


Nice genes


To figure out the genes behind the rat behaviors, Albert and his colleagues interbred a few of the tamest rats with a few of the aggressive rats and then interbred the resulting pups. That way, the rats would have a mix of genes from both types of parents.


So if two rats had matching genes in one region of their genomes but differing tameness behaviors, the researchers could rule out this genetic region as responsible for the behaviors. The inverse is also true.


First, behavior tests teased out which rats were naughty and which were nice. Then, the researchers ran genetic tests. While the results don't reveal specific tameness genes, the researchers have pinpointed sets of genes responsible for tameness.


Further breeding and testing will hopefully uncover the exact genes linked with certain rat behaviors.

[Freakzilla]

very cool. I want a domesticated cobra.

Snakes... I hate snakes...

I want viscious, killer housecats.

Which brings up a question my buddies and I came up with after copious amounts of illicet narcotics...

How many housecats would it take to bring down a cow?

[Rakis]

very cool. I want a domesticated cobra.

Snakes... I hate snakes...

I want viscious, killer housecats.

Which brings up a question my buddies and I came up with after copious amounts of illicet narcotics...

How many housecats would it take to bring down a cow?

That's easy...Depends on location...If the cow lives in Alberta, it will take one cat per 10 pounds of weigh of the cow...so your lookin at around four dozens of cats...

[Freakzilla]

very cool. I want a domesticated cobra.

Snakes... I hate snakes...

I want viscious, killer housecats.

Which brings up a question my buddies and I came up with after copious amounts of illicet narcotics...

How many housecats would it take to bring down a cow?

That's easy...Depends on location...If the cow lives in Alberta, it will take one cat per 10 pounds of weigh of the cow...so your lookin at around four dozens of cats...

Is this a 120lb cow?

That's a good weight for a woman... hmmm... a dozen killer cats...

They would have to be Siamese, they're bat-shit-crazy already.

[Rakis]

very cool. I want a domesticated cobra.

Snakes... I hate snakes...

I want viscious, killer housecats.

Which brings up a question my buddies and I came up with after copious amounts of illicet narcotics...

How many housecats would it take to bring down a cow?

That's easy...Depends on location...If the cow lives in Alberta, it will take one cat per 10 pounds of weigh of the cow...so your lookin at around four dozens of cats...

Is this a 120lb cow?

That's a good weight for a woman... hmmm... a dozen killer cats...

They would have to be Siamese, they're bat-shit-crazy already.

No,no...one cat / 10 pounds...four dozens means the cow is around 480 lbs...

[Freakzilla]

I missed the "four", sorry!

[GamePlayer]

Always wanted a domesticated moose, grizzly bear or panda. I'd ride my moose to work every day and if I ever got hungry, moose burgers are the most tasty meat ever

[Freakzilla]

I've had elk, but never moose. Is it really good?

I bet panda is the best meat, ever.

[GamePlayer]

I've never had any meat make a better burger than moose and I'm from Alberta, land of the best beef. If I had the option, I'd never eat any burger that wasn't moose. It's fantastic.

[GamePlayer]

Yeah, I ain't doing the wild-but-now-supposedly-domesticated thing. I've learned from the mistakes of Steve Irwin, Roy Horn, and Timothy Treadwell. Give me genetically domesticated or give me cats and dogs

[Freakzilla]

Remember the guy that tried to feed the bear on Faces of Death?

Get ready to chalk another one up to natural selection...

[GamePlayer]

Well, look at it this way; if your dog or cat ever tears a strip out of your clothes in hostility, we have the ability to take them down. When a pet Moose, Grizzly Bear or Panda get's ornery, your clothes are now wearing you for protection. So the critter better be genetically programmed to play nice

[Rakis]

I missed the "four", sorry!

Don't be...

Be sorry for Hyppo...

[SandChigger]

And of course behavior is completely controlled by genetics.

"See cake, eat cake. See buffet, eat buffet. Snarf! Snarf! Snarf!"

[GamePlayer]

Well, there's always the chance I'll kill and eat you, but it's not very likely. Especially if you wear that pink shirt, you're too damned pretty to eat

[SandChigger]

Oh, you think I'm pretty? Do you r'ally think so, I mean, r'ally?

[GamePlayer]

Of course! Look at those big white fluffy ears. That cute little furry nose. Tell me you're not snuggle bait

[Omphalos]

More like stew-bait.

[GamePlayer]

"Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew"

[Eyes High]

"Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew"

and don't forget the 'taters.

[SandChigger]

Well then, how's about all of you just

EAT ME!!!

[Eyes High]

You know I couldn't resist that one.


love ya friend.

[SandChigger]

Well, stop lovin' ma friend and love me instead!

[Eyes High]

Well in that case....just for you Chig

[SandChigger]