Geneticists in Dogged Pursuit of Selective Breeding Pawprints

Dogs were first domesticated by humans more than 14,000 years ago, and yet the extraordinary diversity of the more than 400 distinct canine breeds appears to have arisen through selective breeding within the past few centuries. The dog’s genome is thus a source of considerable fascination for geneticists.

In a study published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, a research team sought “to map canine genome regions that show signs of recent selection and that contain genes that are prime candidates for further investigation. Those genes are being examined for their possible roles in the most conspicuous variations among dog breeds: size, coat color and texture, behavior, physiology, and skeleton structure.

“The researchers performed the largest genome-wide scan to date for targets of selection in purebred dogs. The genomes came from 275 unrelated dogs representing 10 breeds that were very unlike each other. The breeds were: Beagle, Border Collie, Brittany, Dachshund, German Shepherd, Greyhound, Jack Russell Terrier, Labrador Retriever, Shar-Pei, and Standard Poodle.”

Altogether, “the researchers catalogued more than 21,000 tiny variations in the genome. In investigating the relationships among the 10 breeds, they found that, genetically, the German Shepherd, Shar-Pei, Beagle, and Greyhound were especially distinct.

“Their list of most differentiated regions of the dog genome included five genes already linked to hallmark traits of certain breeds: one for small size, one for short limbs like those in Dachshunds and other stubby-legged dogs, and three for coats.”

The 155 regions of the dog genome that appear to have been influenced by selective breeding contain 1,630 known or predicted protein-coding genes.

“In calculating the overlap of the signatures marking selection in the genome, the researchers found that approximately 66 percent occurred in only one or two breeds. They noted it was likely that these genome regions contain genes that confer qualities that distinguish a breed, such as skin wrinkling in the Shar-Pei. In contrast, signatures of selection found in five or more breeds tended to sort the dogs into classes, and include, for example, a gene that governs the miniature size of breeds in the toy group.

“A gene associated with dwarfism in mice, the study reports, appears to mediate variations in dog breed size and weight. Small-size breeds, like Dachshund, Beagle, Jack Russell Terrier, and Brittany have enormous differentiation in this gene, compared to larger-size breeds. Another region of peak differentiation in the dog genome, in an area thought to regulate muscle cell formation in embryos, seems to separate the German Shepherd, Jack Russell Terrier, Border Collie and Greyhound from the Dachshund, Beagle, Brittany, and Shar-Pei.”

For further details, see Dog Genome Researchers Track Paw Prints of Selective Breeding in EurekAlert! or this item at Science Daily.

The Song of the Sun

The Sun Today, February 23, 2010 (NASA -- SOHO) in MDI

Helioseismology is the study of the “music” of the sun, our star. Science Daily explains in “The Rhythm of Our Star”.

The Sun Today, 23 Feb 2010 (NASA -- SOHO) in Extreme Ultraviolet

Freedom in the World 2010

While the full survey results won’t be available until late spring, Freedom House has released (as of last month) much of the constituent information that will ultimately appear in the upcoming Freedom in the World 2010, their comprehensive and invaluable annual survey of global political rights and civil liberties.

As they observe, “according to the survey’s findings, 2009 marked the fourth consecutive year in which global freedom suffered a decline—the longest consecutive period of setbacks for freedom in the nearly 40-year history of the report.” The authors explain that “these declines were most pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa, although they also occurred in most other regions of the world. Furthermore, the erosion in freedom took place during a year marked by intensified repression against human rights defenders and democracy activists by many of the world’s most powerful authoritarian regimes, including Russia and China.”

As Freedom House indicates in the press release accompanying the release of the data, “declines for freedom were registered in 40 countries in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union, representing 20 percent of the world’s total polities. Authoritarian states including Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and Vietnam became more repressive. Declines in freedom also occurred in countries that had registered positive trends in previous years, including Bahrain, Jordan, Kenya, and Kyrgyzstan.”

Arch Puddington, Freedom House Director of Research suggested that “the news for 2009 is cause for real concern. The decline is global, affects countries with military and economic power, affects countries that had previously shown signs of reform potential, and is accompanied by enhanced persecution of political dissidents and independent journalists. To make matters worse, the most powerful authoritarian regimes have become more repressive, more influential in the international arena, and more uncompromising.”

Published since 1972, Freedom in the World assesses “the ability of individuals to exercise their political and civil rights in 194 countries and 14 territories around the world. The survey analyzes developments that occurred in 2009 and assigns each country a freedom status—Free, Partly Free, or Not Free—based on a scoring of performance on key indicators.

“In this year’s findings, five countries moved into Not Free status, and the number of electoral democracies declined to the lowest level since 1995. Sixteen countries made notable gains, with two countries improving their overall freedom status. The most significant improvements in 2009 occurred in Asia.”

The key global findings of the upcoming report are that:

“Free: The number of countries designated by Freedom in the World as Free in 2009 stands at 89, representing 46 percent of the world’s 194 countries and 46 percent of the world population.

“Partly Free: The number of Partly Free countries declined to 58, or 30 percent of all countries assessed by the survey, comprising 20 percent of the world’s total population.

“Not Free: The number of countries deemed to be Not Free increased to 47, or 24 percent of the total number of countries. Over 2.3 billion people live in societies where fundamental political rights and civil liberties are not respected. China accounts for half of this number.

“Electoral Democracies: The number of electoral democracies dropped by three and stands at 116. Developments in four countries—Honduras, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Niger—disqualified them from the electoral democracy list, while conditions in the Maldives improved enough for it to be added.

“Worst of the Worst: Of the 47 countries ranked Not Free, nine countries and one territory received the survey’s lowest possible rating for both political rights and civil liberties: Burma, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Tibet, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Eritrea was downgraded to this level in the past year.”

For more on the fundamentals of the report, see the Freedom House press release or the excellent 17-page overview essay Freedom in the World 2010: Erosion of Freedom Intensifies.

Freedom House also produces an excellent series of tables, graphs and charts (12 pages in all) visually summarizing its findings.

You’ll find the global map of freedom reproduced above here.

For yet more information about Freedom House or its pending report Freedom in the World, see our discussion of the 2009 report here or visit the Freedom House website here.

The Secrets of the Sphinx

The ultimate enigma of the Sphinx will be perhaps forever unyielding. But some of its secrets have been unearthed, as described in the March Smithsonian by Evan Hadingham.

Untouchable

US Marshals Destroy Outlawed Alcohol During Prohibition

“It is only in the curious fanaticism of Prohibition that any means, however barbarous, are considered justified,” wrote the editors of the Chicago Tribune in 1927.

Deborah Blum of the University of Wisconsin, writing in Slate, explains the little-known insanity that evoked those words in The Chemist’s War:

“Frustrated that people continued to consume so much alcohol even after it was banned, federal officials had decided to try a different kind of enforcement. They ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols manufactured in the United States, products regularly stolen by bootleggers and resold as drinkable spirits. The idea was to scare people into giving up illicit drinking. Instead, by the time Prohibition ended in 1933, the federal poisoning program, by some estimates, had killed at least 10,000 people.”