Abstract
The process of domestication in animals has led to alterations in behavior, physiology and phenotypic traits, changes that may be driven by correlations with reduced fear of humans. We used Red Junglefowl, ancestors of all domesticated chickens selected for either high or low fear of humans for five generations to study the effects of selection on gene transcription in the cerebral hemisphere, which is heavily involved in behaviour control. A total of 24 individuals from the parental generation as well as from the fifth selected generation were used. Twenty-two genes were significantly differentially expressed at p < 0.05 after false discovery rate (FDR) correction. Those genes that were upregulated in the low fearful animals were found to be involved in neural functions. Gene ontology and pathway analysis revealed enrichment for terms associated with behavioural processes. We conclude that five generations of divergent selection for high or low tameness has significantly changed gene expression patterns in the cerebral hemisphere in the Red Junglefowl population used here, which could underlie a range of changes in the domestic phenotype.
Highlights
Domestication is the process in which a wild population of animals through selective breeding is formed into thriving in captive environments under human control, with several alternative mechanisms involved in the first phases of the domestication process [1, 2]
Analysis of the same genes in P0 and unselected S5 showed no clustering by fearfulness, indicating that the differentially expressed genes in S5 are the result of selection during the five generations and not an inherent difference from the P0 population split
The results presented here show that gene expression profiles in the cerebral hemisphere in two different selection lines of Red Junglefowl diverge after five generations of selection for either high or low fear of humans
Summary
Domestication is the process in which a wild population of animals through selective breeding is formed into thriving in captive environments under human control, with several alternative mechanisms involved in the first phases of the domestication process [1, 2]. The process induces a plethora of phenotypic changes in behaviour, physiology and morphology, mediated by genetic and epigenetic mechanisms [3]. The occurrence of similar traits in unrelated domestic animals is usually referred to as the domesticated phenotype [6], and despite the prevalence and research on the it, there is very little knowledge regarding the underlying genetic mechanisms [7]. Previous attempts at experimentally domesticating wild animals in order to study the domestication process have been performed on, e.g., silver foxes and rats [8, 9]. The fundamental theory behind these domestication attempts is that the central trait driving other parts
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