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(Inside Science) -- When it comes to sheer friendliness, few humans can match the average dog. But people with Williams syndrome may come close, their unusual genetics granting them a puppyish zeal for social interaction. Now, scientists have found that extreme friendliness in both species may share common genetic roots. A friendly condition
Williams syndrome, also known as Williams-Beuren syndrome, occurs when people are missing of a chunk of DNA containing about 27 genes. The syndrome affects about one in 10,000 people, and it is associated with a suite of mental and physical traits, including bubbly, extroverted personalities, a broad forehead, full cheeks, heart defects, intellectual disability and an affinity for music.
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One gene that popped out was WBSCR17, suggesting that it or other genes near it were important in dog evolution. This region of the genome is similar in dogs and humans, and the human version of WBSCR17 is located near the sequence that is deleted in people with Williams syndrome.
This experimenter may do great things in a lab but obviously he doesn't know dogs or cats. Dogs can sense in a minute if a person likes or dislikes dogs. Dogs, in general, warm up fast to the former. This scientist also has not met too many people with Williams Syndrome. I have met some. They are oblivious to people's reactions to them and their behavior.
Most dogs are hardly oblivious. Certain breeds will handle it differently. A Golden Retriever will just look for people more willing to engage with them. Other breeds are more likely to get aggressive.
The trouble with science is that what works in the lab often fails miserable outside.
You are reading a layman’s interpretation of a scientific article. All the article presents is that there is a cluster of similar missing genes in both the humans with the syndrome and the bulk of the canines. So it raises a possibility.
The scientists share that with us and never claim any proof that the loss of those gene functions “caused” dogs to be friendly to humans. Just that it’s correlated. Such a study can prove the basis of further examination for example into what functionality those genes may have ( enzymatic, receptor binding, DNA structure, etc.).
You are reading a layman’s interpretation of a scientific article. All the article presents is that there is a cluster of similar missing genes in both the humans with the syndrome and the bulk of the canines. So it raises a possibility.
The scientists share that with us and never claim any proof that the loss of those gene functions “caused” dogs to be friendly to humans. Just that it’s correlated. Such a study can prove the basis of further examination for example into what functionality those genes may have ( enzymatic, receptor binding, DNA structure, etc.).
Most of science proceeds in small steps.
I think that whatever evolutionary trick happened worked. Humans were just better to form a pack with than other wolves. Humans of course unwittingly accelerated the process by driving of or killing wolves that attempted to prey on them. Humans of course fed and nurtured the "friendly" among them, leading to the adorable, useful animals we now know.
Williams Disease does not confer an evolutionary advantage, since that would render the dog friendly to any mortal enemies it has.
My first thought is that this is another one of those studies just meant to get federal funding, when the funding could have been used for something that would actually benefit humanity.
I did not see a correlation, and frankly as a mother of an adult son with Down syndrome, I found the whole comparison offensive.
Twice my husband and myself have been chased by aggressive Golden Retrievers in two different states. Each time it was two dogs! We were simply walking one time, and another time the other set came into our yard from a neighboring yard. We have had issues with pits, Siberian huskies, yorkies who bite my dogs legs, and Australian Cattle Dogs! Dog breeds and individuals of the breed are "all over the place" with behavior. Some of the behavior may be in their genes, others to do with their circumstances.
I think the study is nonsense, like most of the studies we see. I bet we helped fund it too! Money better spent on the individuals with developmentally disabilities, since many as adults, are placed on state waiting lists for services of 10+ years in the future!
Funding may well have motivated or poisoned the study since it infects much of what passes for "science." "Scientists" basically don't get out into the real world enough. Replicating reproduction in a test tube doesn't measure much of how an animal is brought up, for example. Even "climate science" relies a lot on the desired results, and working backward.
I am assuming that whoever wrote the article on which I based the OP doesn't like dogs very much. I had a friend who's brother has a daughter with Williams Disease. There is no way that condition would help perpetuate any social species.
I am no scientist but I would assume that the ability of a keystone predator to form a "pack" with humans or their progenitors would be a beneficial change since humans have the ability to dominate even over predators such as wolves. Wolves are an endangered species for a reason. While they rarely prey on humans, they compete for carcasses of other domestic animals and for wild game animals. While wolves ranged widely in pre-Colonial days they were not particularly abundant. Paradoxically their numbers grew, temporarily, when Native Americans' numbers were decimated by smallpox and other imported diseases and the bison, deer and antelope temporarily exploded in number. White inhabitation brought that era to a close. Wolves and mountain lions were bountied.
Dogs, having been by then for thousands of years "man's best friend" did not suffer this fate. Indeed, I would argue that humans gained the ability to form large-scale settlements initially based on agriculture and animal husbandry since dogs performed the "watchman" function quite well. This means that humans and dogs "co-evolved." See Something to Bark About: Humans and Dogs Co-Evolved and/or Dogs “Co-evolved” to Live with Humans - Cottesloe Vet.
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