Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 May 7:2:6.
doi: 10.1186/s40575-015-0017-6. eCollection 2015.

Strong selection for behavioural resilience in Australian stock working dogs identified by selective sweep analysis

Elizabeth R Arnott  1 , Lincoln Peek  1 , Jonathan B Early  1 , Annie Y H Pan  1 , Bianca Haase  1 , Tracy Chew  1 , Paul D McGreevy  1 , Claire M Wade  1
Affiliations

Strong selection for behavioural resilience in Australian stock working dogs identified by selective sweep analysis

Elizabeth R Arnott et al. Canine Genet Epidemiol. .

Abstract

Background: Working dog handlers and breeders have strong opinions on characteristics that are desirable in the breeds that they use to handle stock. Most of these characteristics are related to conformation or behaviour. This study explored whether the genetics underlying desirable working behaviour traits might be identified by selective sweep analysis; a method that identifies long regions of strong homozygosity combined with allelic divergence from a comparison group. For this analysis, we compared genomic haplotype architecture in two breeds derived from common founder stock but subjected to divergent selective pressures. The breeds studied were the Australian Kelpie, which is registered with the Australian National Kennel Council, and the Australian Working Kelpie, which is registered with the Working Kelpie Council.

Results: A selective sweep spanning 3 megabases on chromosome 3 was identified in the Australian Working Kelpie. This region is the location of genes related to fear-memory formation and pain perception. Selective sweep loci of similar magnitude were observed in the Australian Kelpie. On chromosome 8 is a locus which may be related to behavioural excitability and on chromosome 30 is a smaller locus which most likely is related to morphology.

Conclusions: Active working stock dogs of the Australian Working Kelpie breed have been bred primarily for gene loci influencing pain perception and fear memory formation. By contrast Australian Kelpies are commonly maintained in urban environments where these characteristics are not required and have been affected by selection for conformation and coat colour. The identified loci may aid in the identification of superior working dogs.

Keywords: Behaviour; Kelpie; Selective sweep.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Australian Working Kelpie (photo credit: Jonathan Early).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Australian Kelpie (photo credit: Jenny Bayliss Photography).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Vonholdt BM, Pollinger JP, Lohmueller KE, Han E, Parker HG, Quignon P, et al. Genome-wide SNP and haplotype analyses reveal a rich history underlying dog domestication. Nature. 2010;464(7290):898–902. doi: 10.1038/nature08837. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vaysse A, Ratnakumar A, Derrien T, Axelsson E, Rosengren Pielberg G, Sigurdsson S, et al. Identification of genomic regions associated with phenotypic variation between dog breeds using selection mapping. PLoS Genet. 2011;7(10):e1002316. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002316. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Boyko AR, Quignon P, Li L, Schoenebeck JJ, Degenhardt JD, Lohmueller KE, et al. A simple genetic architecture underlies morphological variation in dogs. PLoS Biol. 2010;8(8):e1000451. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000451. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Quilez J, Short AD, Martinez V, Kennedy LJ, Ollier W, Sanchez A, et al. A selective sweep of >8 Mb on chromosome 26 in the Boxer genome. BMC Genomics. 2011;12:339. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-12-339. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bannasch D, Young A, Myers J, Truve K, Dickinson P, Gregg J, et al. Localization of canine brachycephaly using an across breed mapping approach. PLoS One. 2010;5(3):e9632. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0009632. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources