Domestication did horses no genetic favors
BY
TINA HESMAN SAEY
Summary
Researchers have found that domesticated horses of today have more harmful genetic variations than their ancestors. Ludovic Orlando of the University of Copenhagen and his team of scientists have sequenced the genomes of two horses excavated near Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Both lived before horses were domesticated and are not direct ancestors of modern day horses, but were on a different branch of the same equine family tree. The increased number of harmful genetic variations is due to humans overriding natural selection to pick traits that seemed desirable, but could also contains damaged genes.
Relevance
This is relevant to what we are learning today because we are learning about evolution. This article was discussing some of the repercussions of artificial selection as opposed to natural selection, which we read about in 14.3. Artificial selection is the selective breeding of domesticated plants or animals to produce offspring with desirable traits, while natural selection is the process of individuals with certain favorable traits being more likely to survive and produce offspring.
Saey, Tina. "Domestication Did Horses No Favors." Science News. Society for
Science & the Public, 14 Dec. 2014. Web. 8 Jan. 2015.
TINA HESMAN SAEY
Is this true for most domesticated horses today?
ReplyDeleteYes, it was a study that compared different breeds of today's modern horses with horse's ancestors of the past
DeleteWhat are the specific harmful genetic variations?
ReplyDeleteHorses today don't live as long and have more harmful alleles in the gene pool
DeleteWhat traits did the sequenced horses have that made them better suited to their environment than horses today?
ReplyDeleteThey lives longer and had less damaged genes in the gene pool
Delete