The genetic makeup of a person greatly influences the decision to have a dog . Genes seem to make up more than half the difference between owning a dog or not. These are the conclusions reached by a team of scientists from the University of Uppsala and the University of Liverpool.
The dog is the first animal we domesticate and it has been in a close relationship with us for at least 15,000 years. Today dogs are very common pets in our society and it is considered that they increase the well-being and health of those who own them.
The goal of the research team was to determine whether or not having a dog has a hereditary component . To carry out the research, the scientists used information on 35,035 sets of twins from the Swedish Twin Registry (the largest of its kind in the world). More specifically, he compared the genetic makeup of twins with keeping a dog.
“We were surprised to see that a person’s genetic makeup appears to be a significant influence on having a dog. As such, these findings have important implications in several different fields related to understanding dog-human interaction throughout the ages. history and in modern times. Although dogs and other pets are common family members around the world, little is known about their impact on our daily lives and health. Perhaps some people have a greater innate propensity to care of one pet than others, “says Tove Fall, lead author of the study, and Professor of Molecular Epidemiology in the Department of Medical Sciences and the Science for Life Laboratory at Uppsala University.
Carri Westgarth, professor of human-animal interaction at the University of Liverpool and co-author of the study, adds: “These findings are important as they suggest that the purported health benefits of owning a dog reported in some studies may be partly explained. due to the different genetics of the people studied “.
The study of twins is a widely used method of unraveling the influences of the environment and genes on our biology and behavior. Because identical twins share their entire genome, and non-identical twins share on average only half of the genetic variation, comparisons of within-pair concordance of the dog’s property between groups can reveal whether genetics play a role. role in owning a dog. The researchers found that dog ownership concordance rates are much higher in identical twins than in non-identical twins, supporting the view that genetics play an important role in choosing to have a dog.
“These kinds of twin studies can’t tell us exactly which genes are involved , but at least they show for the first time that genetics and environment play an equal role in determining dog ownership. The obvious next step is to try to identify which genetic variants affect this choice and how they are related to personality traits and other factors such as allergy, “says Patrik Magnusson, lead author of the study and Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Karolinska Insitutet, Sweden, and Head of the Swedish Twin Registry.
“The study has important implications for understanding the deep and enigmatic history of canine domestication,” says zooarchaeologist and study co-author Keith Dobney, Professor of Human Paleoecology in the Department of Archeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool. “Decades of archaeological research have helped us build a better picture of where and when dogs entered the human world, but modern and ancient genetic data now allow us to directly explore why and how.”
