Saturday, September 17, 2016

Corrigendum on a recent tame fox article

I came across a new article on the Russian tame foxes today, Russian geneticist repeats dog domestication with foxes in just fifty years. It's a nice summary of the Farm Fox Experiment, although I’m not sure why I've seen two stories covering the tame foxes this week — there’s nothing new going on with them! Why two stories in such a short time period?
 
This article does have a few mistakes in it:
 
[Belyaev] and his intern, Lyudmila Trut, wandered around Russia searching for foxes to start their experiment. Foxes were chosen based on their behavior in the presence of humans. Those that showed slightly more tolerance of humans were brought back to their Novosibirsk lab to serve as the start group.
and his intern, Lyudmila Trut, wandered around Russia searching for foxes to start their experiment. Foxes were chosen based on their behavior in the presence of humans. Those that showed slightly more tolerance of humans were brought back to their Novosibirsk lab to serve as the start group.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-09-russian-geneticist-dog-domestication-foxes.html#jCp
and his intern, Lyudmila Trut, wandered around Russia searching for foxes to start their experiment. Foxes were chosen based on their behavior in the presence of humans. Those that showed slightly more tolerance of humans were brought back to their Novosibirsk lab to serve as the start group.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-09-russian-geneticist-dog-domestication-foxes.html#j
and his intern, Lyudmila Trut, wandered around Russia searching for foxes to start their experiment. Foxes were chosen based on their behavior in the presence of humans. Those that showed slightly more tolerance of humans were brought back to their Novosibirsk lab to serve as the start group.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-09-russian-geneticist-dog-domestication-foxes.html#jCp
 
 The original foxes were imported from Canadian fox farms, not chosen from around Russia as this article says. Also, the very first foxes selected for the founding population of the study were not chosen based on their behavior. A control group was kept, so the researchers (of which there are more than two) didn’t want that first set to be more friendly than the average farm fox.
 
[The changes were] not all on the outside—their adrenal glands became more active, resulting in higher levels of serotonin in their brains, which is known to mute aggressive behavior.
 
The tame foxes’ adrenal glands became less active, and secreted less cortisol, a hormone which is associated with stress. Additionally, they have been shown to have higher levels of serotonin in their brains (not secreted by their adrenals, however), which is associated with less aggressive behavior, though I think saying that serotonin “mutes” aggressive behavior might be going a bit far. We don’t fully understand the link between serotonin and aggression.

I do like seeing the Farm Fox Experiment covered in the popular press, though. It’s such a great way of explaining how selection works and such a fascinating demonstration of how quickly selection can have an effect!


And it was not all on the outside—their adrenal glands became more active, resulting in higher levels of serotonin in their brains, which is known to mute aggressive behavior.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-09-russian-geneticist-dog-domestication-foxes.html#jCpMore importantly, the adrenals don’t control serotonin levels in the brain. They release cortisol into the blood stream. Tame foxes show reduced levels of both cortisol and serotonin compared to control foxes, but those are two different things.

 

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