The History of Farm Foxes Undermines the Animal Domestication Syndrome

Kathryn A Lord; Greger Larson; Raymond P Coppinger; Elinor K Karlsson

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2019.10.011

The History of Farm Foxes Undermines the Animal Domestication Syndrome

Trends Ecol Evol. 2020 Feb;35(2):125-136. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.10.011. Epub 2019 Dec 3.

Authors

Kathryn A Lord¹, Greger Larson², Raymond P Coppinger³, Elinor K Karlsson⁴

Affiliations

¹ Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 368 Plantation Street, Worcester, MA 01655, USA; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
² The Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art, University of Oxford, 1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, UK.
³ School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College, 893 West St, Amherst, MA 01002, USA.
⁴ Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 368 Plantation Street, Worcester, MA 01655, USA; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 415 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Program in Molecular Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 368 Plantation Street, Worcester, MA 01655, USA. Electronic address: elinor@broadinstitute.org.

PMID: 31810775
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.10.011

Abstract

The Russian Farm-Fox Experiment is the best known experimental study in animal domestication. By subjecting a population of foxes to selection for tameness alone, Dimitry Belyaev generated foxes that possessed a suite of characteristics that mimicked those found across domesticated species. This 'domestication syndrome' has been a central focus of research into the biological pathways modified during domestication. Here, we chart the origins of Belyaev's foxes in eastern Canada and critically assess the appearance of domestication syndrome traits across animal domesticates. Our results suggest that both the conclusions of the Farm-Fox Experiment and the ubiquity of domestication syndrome have been overstated. To understand the process of domestication requires a more comprehensive approach focused on essential adaptations to human-modified environments.

Keywords: Anthropocene; behavioral selection; domestic animals; domestication syndrome; neural crest; pleiotropic effects; silver fox.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Animals, Domestic
Domestication*
Farms
Foxes* / genetics
Phenotype