The Connection Between the Red Fox Genome and Its Aggressive and Tame Habits

Red Fox Genome Assembly Identifies Genomic Regions Associated With Tame and Aggressive Behaviors

            Approximately 10 million years ago, there was a divergence between the red fox and the domestic dog. Both of these animals belong to the family Canidae and they, therefore, remain to be closely associated species. But the two creatures belong to extremely different ecological niches. The red fox has a more extensive geographic range than any other animal in the order Carnivora and is found in most of the big cities (Kukekova et al 1479). On the other hand, the dog became the man’s pet. The main purpose of this research is to find out the connection between the red fox genome and its aggressive and tame habits. The research offers the sequence assembly of the red fox genome as well as a populace genetic assessment of the entire re-sequenced genomes of foxes from the conventional farm-bred, aggressive and tame populace.

Different methods, procedures, and steps were used in this research. First, the samples were gathered from grownup foxes kept at the experimental ranch of the Institute of Cycology and Genetics found in Novosibirsk, Russia (Kukekova et al 1484). The different procedures and steps included: assembling and sequencing of the fox genome, annotating the fox genome, aligning the fox scaffolds against the dog genome, re-sequencing the fox samples from three populace, SNP calling and reading alignment, analyzing the principal component, constructing the individual tree, analyzing structure, analyzing the dissimilarities between allele frequency, mapping the dog genome against the fox windows, analyzing gene enrichment, comparing fox important windows with areas related to domestication as well as positive variety in dogs, comparing fox areas with fox behavioral QTL, analyzing functionally the intergenic SNPs in important windows, fine mapping the areas on VVU15, and analyzing karyotype.

In conclusion, assessment of the re-sequenced genomes revealed 103 areas with either considerably reduced heterozygosity in one of the three populaces or raised divergence between the populaces (Kukekova et al 1479). In addition, the fox is a great example for the genetic assessment of aggressive and affiliative habits that may help genetic researches of manners or habits in mammals such as dogs and human beings. 

Works Cited

Kukekova, Anna V., et al. “Red fox genome assembly identifies genomic regions associated with tame and aggressive behaviours.” Nature ecology & evolution 2.9 (2018): 1479.