February 21st:
Discussion: JOSH & PIA

Who-s-Who: Patrick & Abe
Food: Caitlin & Emily

Kukekova et al. (2011) Sequence comparison of prefrontal cortical brain transcriptome from a tame and an aggressive silver fox (Vulpes vulpes) BMC Genomics 12:482

you will likely want to go and get some of the supplementary files also.

and for a more broad view on the project

Kukekova AV, Temnykh SV, Johnson JL, Trut LN, Acland GM. 2012. Genetics of behavior in the silver fox. Mammalian Genome 23: 164-77

TAME

NOT TAME

 

At an experimental farm in Novosibirsk, Siberia, geneticists have been working for four decades to turn foxes into dogs. They are not trying to create the next pet craze. Instead ,researchers hope to explain why domesticated animals such as pigs, cattle and dogs are so different from their wild ancestors. They have found that much has to do with a shift in developmental timing (figure below). Now they are keen to understand the genetic mechanisms that underlie those shifts and orchestrate the behaviors.


and if you've got a spare $6K you can buy one for your very own.