Abstract
Studies on domestication are blooming, but the developmental bases for the generation of domestication traits and breed diversity remain largely unexplored. Some phenotypic patterns of human neurocristopathies are suggestive of those reported for domesticated mammals and disrupting neural crest developmental programmes have been argued to be the source of traits deemed the ‘domestication syndrome’. These character changes span multiple organ systems and morphological structures. But an in-depth examination within the phylogenetic framework of mammals including domesticated forms reveals that the distribution of such traits is not universal, with canids being the only group showing a large set of predicted features. Modularity of traits tied to phylogeny characterizes domesticated mammals: through selective breeding, individual behavioural and morphological traits can be reordered, truncated, augmented or deleted. Similarly, mammalian evolution on islands has resulted in suites of phenotypic changes like those of some domesticated forms. Many domesticated mammals can serve as valuable models for conducting comparative studies on the evolutionary developmental biology of the neural crest, given that series of their embryos are readily available and that their phylogenetic histories and genomes are well characterized.
Highlights
Domesticated forms are experiments in evolution, as selective breeding has produced rapid phenotypic changes that otherwise would occur in geological time
The provocative hypothesis most recently articulated by Wilkins et al [29] on a potential common developmental mechanism underlying all domestication in mammals deserves a closer look and a critical discussion
The alterations in skull shape in some foxes of the tame strain mirror the morphological changes in early domestic dogs, which were characterized by relatively short and broad rostra. This peculiarity has repeatedly been hypothesized to be the result of a juvenilization associated with dog domestication [24,54,112,116,117,118,119,120]
Summary
New appraisals of molecular and archaeological data are illuminating the origins of domestication [2,3] and genomic data are providing insights into diverse subjects [4], including the relationships among wild progenitors and subsequent breeds [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16] and the mechanisms for adaptations to different diets and locomotory patterns [17,18]. Despite the different paths that may lead to domestication ([31,32]; figure 1), the occurrence of phenotypic alterations associated with domestication in animals is often similar in diverse and unrelated groups [21] In mammals, this has been called the ‘domestication syndrome’ [31,47], the concept of a ‘domestication syndrome’ has long been widely used to describe a similar phenomenon in crops and other cultivated plants [48,49,50,51]. We recognize two fundamental aspects in the ideas on the domestication syndrome: (i) the frequency and covariation of the traits and (ii) the role of the neural crest These deserve critical treatment as they concern the developmental morphology of animals that interact very closely with humans, and they illustrate the generative and regulatory role of development in evolution (sensu Alberch [64])
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