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Updated: Jun 25, 2026
07:13
Measuring Active and Passive Tameness Separately in Mice
Published on: August 10, 2018
Animal evolution during domestication: the domesticated fox as a model.
Lyudmila Trut1, Irina Oskina, Anastasiya Kharlamova
1Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia. trut@bionet.nsc.ru
Summary
The domestication of animals, like dogs, accelerated evolutionary changes through behavioral trait selection. A silver fox experiment showed similar behavioral, morphological, and physiological shifts, highlighting the role of neurospecific genes.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Animal domestication
- Genetics
Background:
- Domestication profoundly impacts animal evolution, with early stages being critical.
- The dog (Canis familiaris) exemplifies high diversity resulting from domestication.
- Behavioral traits are key drivers of evolutionary transformation in domestic animals.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the evolutionary impact of early domestication stages.
- To illustrate domestication's course using the dog as a model.
- To investigate the mechanisms driving phenotypic variation during domestication.
Main Methods:
- Review of historical domestication data, focusing on the dog.
- Analysis of a long-term silver fox (Vulpes vulpes) domestication experiment.
- Examination of behavioral, morphological, and physiological changes in selected foxes.
Main Results:
- Early domestication, driven by behavioral selection, accelerates phenotypic variation.
- Silver foxes selected for tameness exhibited changes mirroring domestic dogs.
- These changes involve developmental, genetic, and molecular genetic mechanisms.
Conclusions:
- Selection for behavior is a primary driver of evolutionary transformation in domestic animals.
- Neurospecific regulatory genes are implicated in these domestication-induced changes.
- Understanding these mechanisms provides insights into mammalian domestication processes.
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