domestication syndrome is one of the coolest findings from recent genetics
Yes!
Basically scientists have found that if you start selecting for people-friendly animals, you see a bunch of hypothetically unrelated traits start showing up in all sorts of mammal species: floppy ears, piebald/patterned coats, etc.
This is true for everything from cows to dogs to rats! One of the coolest long term studies on this has been the Russian fox experiments.
So essentially the science goes like this:
You have two copies of every genes, one from each parent.
We tend to simplify genetics, and say that for every single gene you have it is random,l coin flip which copy you pass on to you offspring. We also tend think of genes as a 1:1 ratio of genes—>traits.
But! This is not quite the case.
Genes have a specific physical location and order relative to each other on your chromosomes, and the chance of genes being inherited together goes up the closer together they are located. This means random, unrelated traits can wind up being more commonly inherited together in specific patterns just because those genes are located close together, and you don’t get that completely random reshuffling of two parent’s traits. Some of them tend to stay “stuck” together.
This is called linkage, and it’s why you often see red hair, pale skin, and freckles together, for example.
The second factor that plays into this is that a lot of times 1 gene affects several different traits (or several different genes affect 1 trait). This means that sometimes you really *can’t* untangle two traits because they have a similar cause. For example, say genes for increased aggression are responsible both for making a spider a better hunter (pro) and making a spider more likely to eat its offspring (con). Because the same gene is the cause of both things, natural selection can’t really untangle them.
Circling back to the redhead/freckles/pale skin example, these traits are affected by a number of different genes, but also one gene in particular: MCR1, a gene that changes how your body responds to hormones promoting melanin production. Again, one gene related to pigment production can affect a BUNCH of different traits. (And also skin cancer risk. Fun!)
Domestication Syndrome in mammals turns out to be due to both linkage and genes affect by multiple traits!
See, when we domestic animals we want them to be friendlier/less aggressive, which normally translates to less FEARFUL.
And it turns out that the same genes involved in adrenal responses and other stress reactions are also involved in melanin, cartilage, and bone production. So when we domesticate animals we get these recurring changes in pigmentation (white patches, piebald costs), floppy ears (cartilage), shorter muzzles and other changes in physical stature (bone growth), etc.
We also wind up selecting for a lot of neotenic genes in general— that is, retention of childhood traits into adulthood. That’s because baby animals tend to have lots of friendly/trusting/biddable/curious traits we are looking for.
And honestly, who can say no to a face like this?
ps, since it was mentioned:
the same genes involved in domestication probably help animals form social groups in general. if you need to get along with and trust strangers you need a decrease in the panic/aggression genes.
cats, for example, probably domesticated themselves when they started living close to each other and to humans to feed off of pests in grain silos.
and yeah, some some recent theories suggest humans may have ‘domesticated’ themselves:
so basically you’re saying that when we breed animals to be friends, they become friend-shaped.
i sleep nude because if someone ever breaks into my house they gotta fight me while im naked and i dare you to try and swing on a nigga when his dick is out
You are grade A guarenteed to get yourself hurt with this mindset? You think I’m afraid to grab a dick and yank it, bruh? You think I won’t get my hands dirty on your dick in order to end you? You got the wrong one, man—and your ass better hope I don’t have a knife.
Okay weirdly this exact situation has happened to me. It was summer so I was sleeping naked, but then I heard the lock on the front door being opened. I thought someone was breaking into my house and I had enough time to either grab my sword or my nightgown, not both.
Two things I learned.
One, sometimes apartment complexes will flat out forget to tell you they’re sending someone over from the fire department to check your fire extinguishers.
Two, no matter how bad ass a person thinks they are, a naked person swinging a sword at them will knock them off balance both physically and mentally.
However, the fireman was very nice about it and accepted my apology.
didn’t think it could get any better, yet here we are
So here’s the thing about new cities, they’re really scary. There’s just so much about them to take in and absorb and you seem to notice all of it at the same time.
Temporary stalls where you have never seen stalls before, even though you passed by the same place daily. Weather that alternates between humid, sticky, hot, humid, sticky, and pleasant. Different ways of dealing with said weather that would have never occurred to you if not for observation. People using things as hand fans when the purpose of said things is something entirely different and unrelated. People looking at you oddly as you walk past them. People nodding and smiling at you approvingly but not creepily as you walk past them (though what you did to gain their momentary approval, you will never know). People glaring at you as you walk past them. People staring past you blankly as you walk past them. People who are too busy focussing on the road and not getting hit, who fail to notice you. People who refuse to focus on the road because listening to music is so much more important. Streets vendors you need to listen to carefully in order to realise they speak a language that you know, and not some alien, out-of-place one whose words you never heard of. Street vendors who are pretty clear about what they’re shouting (and selling). Bus conductors who are super helpful and tell you twenty thousand things about a place when you ask them if some place is close to a stop you intend on getting down at. Bus conductors who are indifferent to your presence and go about their business (as long as you’ve bought a ticket). Bus conductors who make you feel tiny and guilty about having gotten into the bus after waiting for it for 45 minutes. Ladies dressed in the simplest of sarees, discussing the words of a philosopher (and the rising prices of onions). Ladies dressed in formal wear, who hurl the most fluent abuses you’ve ever heard anyone hurling. Men who anxiously look at their watch, the sky, and the road at regular intervals, almost nervously, as though expecting a meteorite to hit their head soon. Men who half-whistle, half-hum their way through the very same day. Greenery and trees and shrubs and plants that make you feel amazed at its beauty. Potholes and leaking pipes and mud and sludge that make you hate yourself for stepping out. The greenery and the potholes within five minutes of each other. Flowers that have this heady scent that bring a smile to your face. Perfumes that have the same heady scent that make you frown and quickly run away from there. Restaurants whose menu you look, but happen to be places you know you will never eat in – ones that you know will take up all the money you have been saving for that book. Restaurants that are so cheaply priced that you order so much and you almost immediately regret it because the food tastes so bad. Restaurants that are cheaply priced and have good food and make you form a long-lasting bond of true love with them. Brightly coloured posters that advertise a job if you’ve failed school. Plain posters that announce the upcoming concert at an auditorium. Posters that are neither here nor there. Headlights from the vehicles on roads that make it difficult for you to see. Lights from stores nearby that half-blind you into not seeing. Old men who bless you when you help them cross the road. Little girls in pigtails who clutch onto you for a few seconds after you’re done helping them cross, and look at you with sincere thankfulness before they proceed to move on with their lives and buy that balloon that they had so bravely crossed the Big Bad Road for. The big everythings and the big nothings about a city. The little nothings and little everythings about it.
That’s the thing about new cities. They’re scary, yes.
Raf's rants 