Domestication may have damaged DNA of dogs

​ Los Angeles: The domestication of dogs from grey wolves more than 15,000 years ago may have inadvertently caused harmful genetic changes in the canines, according to a new study. Domesticating dogs involved artificial selection and inbreeding, but the effects of these processes on dog genomes have been little-studied.

Researchers analysed the complete genome sequences of 19 wolves; 25 wild dogs from 10 different countries; and 46 domesticated dogs from 34 different breeds. They found that domestication may have led to a rise in the number of harmful genetic changes in dogs, likely as a result of temporary reductions in population size known as bottlenecks.

"Population bottlenecks tied to domestication, rather than recent inbreeding, likely led to an increased frequency of deleterious genetic variations in dogs," said Kirk Lohmueller, senior author of the research and assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in the UCLA College.

Such variations, Lohmueller said, could potentially lead to a number of different developmental disorders and other health risks. Selective breeding programmes, particularly those aimed at conserving rare and endangered species, may need to include and maintain large populations to minimise the inadvertent enrichment of harmful genetic changes, he said.