Domestication And Evolution

Domestication of animals is a long-scale process, which began in

prehistoric times
1. Domestication is a result of artificial selection , which, opposite to
natural selection , is carried out by man. Actually, there is no real
opposition between these two kinds of selection – even Charles
Darwin began his classical work with amazing examples of variation
in domestic animals, caused by man .
2. Darwin considered the man’s job on changing animal’s phenotype
and behavior as a model of what nature can do. And as any model it
can help us to understand the mechanisms of evolution – the basic
process of life history. The problem is that prehistoric people had not
bothered of making detailed scientific records for us.
3. It means: The individuals differ by fitness – the most adopted have
more chances to survive and to produce offspring hence – to pass
their genes to future generations
4. The real evolution is more complicated. Selection never affect one
character only. Because an organism is by no way a mechanical
combination of traits, but a highly integrative system .The proteins
and cells interact in the ontogenesis (individual development) .This
process has hierarchy – some genes and gene complexes (the master
genes ) rule and control other genes activity.
5. The highest integrative levels in animals are nerve and hormonal
regulation .From this point of view traits become not equal .Even
slight changes in the regulatory genes can give rise to a wide network
of changes in the developmental processes they govern.
6. In highly integrative systems even small changes of one element
can lead to an avalanche-like events
7. Regulatory systems, The systems make an organism develop and
function as a whole Genes , controlling development Hormones
Nerve system
8. The hormonal and nerve systems are also defined by genes!
9. Regulatory genes
10. Thus, selecting animals for behavior – the top regulatory
character, involving many genes - may lead to other, far-reaching
changes in the animals’ development .It can cause destabilization of
ontogenesis , and by that means changing of many other characters ,
which had not undergone direct selection
11.The mystery of parallelism
These was in line with one of well-known and mysterious facts
about domestication: a striking parallelism in the morphological
 changes. In a wide range of mammals – herbivores and predators,
large and small – domestication seems to lead to strictly coincident
forms
12. all except sheep changes in reproductive cycle dogs, cats,
pigs, sheep, goats, cattle floppy ears dogs, cats, sheep shortened tails,
fewer vertebrae dogs, pigs rolled tails sheep, poodles, donkeys,
horses, pigs, goats, mice, guinea pigs wavy or curly hair all piebald
coat color all appearance of dwarf and giant forms Domesticated
species Character
13. To ensure that their behavior is determined rather by genes ,
than by the environment, any training was excluded : the foxes spent
their lives in cages and were allowed only brief contacts with humans
14. What distinguishes the domesticated foxes of the wild one?
The first is the behavior Behavior is strictly determined by
hormones – and hormone level changed significantly too The
reproductive cycle regulated by hormones is very conservative in
wild animals. Domestication shifted time of the normal breeding
season and even made some animals capable for twice a year
reproduc tion . (normally once)
15. More surprising were the morphological changes
The new morphological characters that are absent in wild animals
but are quite common in dogs: a loss of pigment in the coat color –
“Star” mark on the forehead and piebald coat ,floppy ears ,rolled
tails ,shortened tails and legs
16. Similar genes produce similar mutations Similar mutant
phenotype
The leading role among genes stabilizing an organism’s
development belongs to the genes that control the neural and
endocrine systems. The same genes govern the systems that control
an animal’s behavior, including its friendliness or hostility toward
human beings. So, selecting animals for behavior can fundamentally
alter the development of an organism.
17. Gene networks rule the development of all traits in ontogeneses
Master genes in inductor cells Membrane receprors’ genes
Regulatory genes Srtucrural proteins’ genes
18. Belyaev’s Idea of Destabilizing Selection
19. Destabilizing Selection as a Model of Speciation
 A puzzle of speciation is that species seem to be stable for a long
periods of time And then suddenly (in geological time scale)
disappear (in case of extinction) or transform to a new species. Thus,
speciation is relatively fast process (hundreds - thousands
generations) in comparison with species continuance.
It provides genetic homeostasis . All genes act in coordinate way,
resulting in normal development. But stabilizing selection is
effective in stable environment only If environment abruptly changes
– the average fitness of population falls dramatically and directional
selection for previously rare phenotypes began
20. Punctuated Equilibrium Theory of Speciation .This theory
strongly resembles processes observed in domestication Of course,
natural selection, leading to speciation should not always affect
behavior. Selection may act on any regulatory chain For example,
strict change of environment can provoke stress – intensive emotional
pressure. Stress leads to long-time hormonal changes and selection
for stress-resistance genes – regulatory kind of genes, like genes of
behavior
21. The recent results from molecular study of genomes come in
line with this view on speciation . They revealed that most of general
changes in organism’s structure are result of changes in gene
regulation , their spatial and temporal pattern of expression , rather
than direct changes in their DNA sequence
22. Regulatory evolution at the yellow gene underlies the wing
pigmenation of Drosophilidae Staining for yellow protein
D.melanogaster D. biarmipes D. guttifera Wings
23. Domestic Animals: Parallelism in Color
24. http://www.slideshare.net/outdoors/domestication-and-
evolution