Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
New research led by scientists at the American Museum of
Natural History and the Smithsonian S National Museum of
Natural History reveals that themajority of dogs living today
have low but detectable levels of post domestication wolf
ancestry that has likely shaped characteristics including body
size, sense of smell and personality traits.
(00:22):
The study, published in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, suggests that this newly uncovered gene
flow may help give unique advantages to dogs survival in
diverse human environments. Among their findings, post
domestication wolf ancestry exists in a wide range of dog
breeds, from large Shiloh shepherds to the tiny Chihuahua.
(00:46):
Modern dogs, especially pet dogs, can seem so removed from
wolves, which are often demonized, said the study S lead
author Audrey Lynn, A Gerstner postdoctoral scholar in
bioinformatics and computationalbiology at the American Museum
of Natural History. But there are some
(01:06):
characteristics that may have come from wolves that we greatly
value in dogs today and that we choose to keep in their lineage.
This is a study about dogs, but in a lot of ways it's telling us
about wolves. Dogs evolved from an extinct
population of Gray wolves under human influences during the late
Pleistocene, about 20,000 years ago.
(01:30):
Although wolves and dogs live inthe same geographic regions and
can produce fertile offspring, hybridization is rare and with
few exceptions of intentionally cross bred wolves and dogs,
there is little evidence of geneflow between the groups after
dog domestication separated their gene pools.
Prior to this study, the leadingscience seemed to suggest that
(01:54):
in order for a dog to be a dog, there can't be very much wolf
DNA present, if any, Lynn said. But we found if you look very
closely in modern dog genomes, wolf is there.
This suggests that dog genomes can tolerate wolf DNA up to an
unknown level and still remain the dogs we know and love.
(02:16):
The researchers explored historical dog wolf gene flow
using more than 2700 published genomes from the National Center
for Biotechnology Information and the European Nucleotide
Archive of Wolves, breed dogs, village dogs and other canids
spanning the Late Pleistocene tothe present.
They found that almost 2/3 of breed dogs have wolf ancestry
(02:40):
within their nuclear genome fromcross breeding that occurred
around 1000 generations ago. In addition, all of the genomes
analyzed from village dogs, freeroaming dogs that live in or
near human settlements, carry detectable wolf ancestry.
Czechoslovakian and Sarluce wolfdogs, which were purposefully
(03:00):
bred through hybridization with wolves, had the highest levels
of wolf ancestry between 23 to 40% of their genomes.
Among breed dogs, the most wolfie were the Great Anglo
French Trichallur hound between 4.7 and 5.7% wolf ancestry and
the Shiloh shepherd 2.7% wolf ancestry.
(03:23):
While the Shiloh Shepherd originated from breeding efforts
with wolf dogs or other recent dog wolf hybrids to create
healthier, more family friendly shepherd dogs in the US, the
origin of the extensive wolf ancestry in Great Anglo French
Trichallur hounds, the most common hound in modern France,
is known and unexpected. The Tomaskan, a wolf alike breed
(03:46):
that originated in the UK in the1980s from selecting Huskies,
malamutes and other breeds with the goal of producing a wolf
like appearance, has about 3.7% wolf ancestry.
The researchers found several patterns among the data.
Wolf ancestry is higher among larger dogs and in those bred
(04:07):
for certain types of work, including Arctic sled dogs,
pariah breeds, and hunting dogs.Terriers, gun dogs, and scent
hounds have the least wolf ancestry on average.
While some large guardian dogs have high wolf ancestry, others
like the Neapolitan mastiff, bull mastiff, and the Saint
(04:29):
Bernard have no detectable wolf ancestry.
Wolf ancestry is also found in awide range of dog breeds outside
of these correlations, includingin the tiny Chihuahua, which has
about 0.2% wolf ancestry. This completely makes sense to
anyone who owns a Chihuahua, Lynn said.
(04:51):
And what we VE found is that this is the norm.
Most dogs are a little bit wolfy.
The research team also compared how often personality terms are
used by kennel clubs to describedog breeds with the highest and
lowest levels of wolf ancestry. The descriptor most associated
with low wolf ancestry breeds was friendly, followed by eager
(05:13):
to please, easy to train, courageous, lively, and
affectionate. In contrast, high wolf ancestry
dogs are more often described assuspicious of strangers, as well
as independent, dignified, alert, loyal, reserved, and
territorial. Other descriptors including
(05:37):
intelligent, obedient, good withchildren, dedicated, calm, and
cheerful occurred with similar frequency in both groups of
dogs. The team stressed that these
traits are biased assessments ofbreeds behaviors and it is not
known if wolf genes are directlyresponsible for these
characteristics, but this finding opens paths for future
(06:00):
research in dog behavioral science.
In addition, the study uncoveredimportant adaptations that dogs
have access through wolves, including enriched wolf ancestry
and olfactory receptor genes in village dogs who depend on the
ability to sniff out human food waste and the distribution of a
(06:20):
Tibetan wolf like gene that helps Tibetan mastiffs tolerate
low oxygen conditions in the Tibetan Plateau and the
Himalayas. Dogs are our buddies, but
apparently wolves have been a big part of shaping them into
the companions we know and love today, said study co-author
Logan Kistler, curator of archaeobotony and
(06:40):
archaeogenomics at the National Museum of Natural History.
Through the years, dogs have hadto solve all kinds of
evolutionary problems that come with living with humans, whether
it's surviving at high altitude,searching for their next meal as
they freely roam a village, or protecting the herd.
And it seems like they use wolf jeans as part of a tool kit to
(07:03):
continue their evolutionary success story.
Other study authors include Regina Fairbanks from the
University of California, Davis,Jose Barba Montoya from the
American Museum of Natural History, and Shio Lei Lu from
the National Museum of Natural History and University of
(07:23):
Stockholm. Study toy 10.1073.
Point, 242-176-8122.
New research led by scientists at the American Museum of
Natural History and the Smithsonian S National Museum of
Natural History reveals that themajority of dogs living today
have low but detectable levels of post domestication wolf
ancestry that has likely shaped characteristics including body
size, sense of smell and personality traits.
(00:22):
The study, published in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, suggests that this newly uncovered gene
flow may help give unique advantages to dogs survival in
diverse human environments. Among their findings, post
domestication wolf ancestry exists in a wide range of dog
breeds, from large Shiloh shepherds to the tiny Chihuahua.
(00:46):
Modern dogs, especially pet dogs, can seem so removed from
wolves, which are often demonized, said the study S lead
author Audrey Lynn, A Gerstner postdoctoral scholar in
bioinformatics and computationalbiology at the American Museum
of Natural History. But there are some
(01:06):
characteristics that may have come from wolves that we greatly
value in dogs today and that we choose to keep in their lineage.
This is a study about dogs, but in a lot of ways it's telling us
about wolves. Dogs evolved from an extinct
population of Gray wolves under human influences during the late
Pleistocene, about 20,000 years ago.
(01:30):
Although wolves and dogs live inthe same geographic regions and
can produce fertile offspring, hybridization is rare and with
few exceptions of intentionally cross bred wolves and dogs,
there is little evidence of geneflow between the groups after
dog domestication separated their gene pools.
Prior to this study, the leadingscience seemed to suggest that
(01:54):
in order for a dog to be a dog, there can't be very much wolf
DNA present, if any, Lynn said. But we found if you look very
closely in modern dog genomes, wolf is there.
This suggests that dog genomes can tolerate wolf DNA up to an
unknown level and still remain the dogs we know and love.
(02:16):
The researchers explored historical dog wolf gene flow
using more than 2700 published genomes from the National Center
for Biotechnology Information and the European Nucleotide
Archive of Wolves, breed dogs, village dogs and other canids
spanning the Late Pleistocene tothe present.
They found that almost 2/3 of breed dogs have wolf ancestry
(02:40):
within their nuclear genome fromcross breeding that occurred
around 1000 generations ago. In addition, all of the genomes
analyzed from village dogs, freeroaming dogs that live in or
near human settlements, carry detectable wolf ancestry.
Czechoslovakian and Sarluce wolfdogs, which were purposefully
(03:00):
bred through hybridization with wolves, had the highest levels
of wolf ancestry between 23 to 40% of their genomes.
Among breed dogs, the most wolfie were the Great Anglo
French Trichallur hound between 4.7 and 5.7% wolf ancestry and
the Shiloh shepherd 2.7% wolf ancestry.
(03:23):
While the Shiloh Shepherd originated from breeding efforts
with wolf dogs or other recent dog wolf hybrids to create
healthier, more family friendly shepherd dogs in the US, the
origin of the extensive wolf ancestry in Great Anglo French
Trichallur hounds, the most common hound in modern France,
is known and unexpected. The Tomaskan, a wolf alike breed
(03:46):
that originated in the UK in the1980s from selecting Huskies,
malamutes and other breeds with the goal of producing a wolf
like appearance, has about 3.7% wolf ancestry.
The researchers found several patterns among the data.
Wolf ancestry is higher among larger dogs and in those bred
(04:07):
for certain types of work, including Arctic sled dogs,
pariah breeds, and hunting dogs.Terriers, gun dogs, and scent
hounds have the least wolf ancestry on average.
While some large guardian dogs have high wolf ancestry, others
like the Neapolitan mastiff, bull mastiff, and the Saint
(04:29):
Bernard have no detectable wolf ancestry.
Wolf ancestry is also found in awide range of dog breeds outside
of these correlations, includingin the tiny Chihuahua, which has
about 0.2% wolf ancestry. This completely makes sense to
anyone who owns a Chihuahua, Lynn said.
(04:51):
And what we VE found is that this is the norm.
Most dogs are a little bit wolfy.
The research team also compared how often personality terms are
used by kennel clubs to describedog breeds with the highest and
lowest levels of wolf ancestry. The descriptor most associated
with low wolf ancestry breeds was friendly, followed by eager
(05:13):
to please, easy to train, courageous, lively, and
affectionate. In contrast, high wolf ancestry
dogs are more often described assuspicious of strangers, as well
as independent, dignified, alert, loyal, reserved, and
territorial. Other descriptors including
(05:37):
intelligent, obedient, good withchildren, dedicated, calm, and
cheerful occurred with similar frequency in both groups of
dogs. The team stressed that these
traits are biased assessments ofbreeds behaviors and it is not
known if wolf genes are directlyresponsible for these
characteristics, but this finding opens paths for future
(06:00):
research in dog behavioral science.
In addition, the study uncoveredimportant adaptations that dogs
have access through wolves, including enriched wolf ancestry
and olfactory receptor genes in village dogs who depend on the
ability to sniff out human food waste and the distribution of a
(06:20):
Tibetan wolf like gene that helps Tibetan mastiffs tolerate
low oxygen conditions in the Tibetan Plateau and the
Himalayas. Dogs are our buddies, but
apparently wolves have been a big part of shaping them into
the companions we know and love today, said study co-author
Logan Kistler, curator of archaeobotony and
(06:40):
archaeogenomics at the National Museum of Natural History.
Through the years, dogs have hadto solve all kinds of
evolutionary problems that come with living with humans, whether
it's surviving at high altitude,searching for their next meal as
they freely roam a village, or protecting the herd.
And it seems like they use wolf jeans as part of a tool kit to
(07:03):
continue their evolutionary success story.
Other study authors include Regina Fairbanks from the
University of California, Davis,Jose Barba Montoya from the
American Museum of Natural History, and Shio Lei Lu from
the National Museum of Natural History and University of
(07:23):
Stockholm. Study toy 10.1073.
Point, 242-176-8122.
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