Genetic Architecture Of Tameness

In the penultimate chapter of "Not A Chimp" - called "The Ape That Domesticated Itself" I describe how a young researcher from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Frank Albert, had begun research using multiple crosses of rats selected either for tameness or ferality which had been obtained from Belyaev's Institute in Novosibirsk. He's on the search for the genetic foundations for tameness or domestication. His hope is to find this "genetic architecture" in his rat model and discover that the same, or similar genes, are involved in the distinction between bonobos and chimps, other domesticated animals, even us. He's just let me know that his group has made some headway. As the above abstract explains, they have identified two significant QTLs (quantitative trait loci that are areas of a particular chromosome that associate with tameness. The key genes will be within these QTLs). These loci, he says, overlap with a QTL for adrenal gland weight - suggesting a link with corticosteroid hormones associated with fight and flight - and a QTL for anxiety-related traits. All very encouraging....