狗与七祖先狼有很大不同，具有与人沟通合作的独特社交技能。先前在实验室比格犬中发现，人类导向社会行为具有遗传性。欧洲研究人员发现了与狗的人类导向社会行为有关的基因，该研究近期发表在《科学报告》中。他们用全基因组关联分析（GWSA）识别出了与狗的人类导向社会行为相关的两个基因组。在一项不易解决的任务中，研究人员记录了标准条件下繁育、饲养和照料的实验室比格犬主动与人体接触的倾向性。在这项任务中，比格犬需要打开三个盖子来取得容器中的食物，但其中一个盖子是固定且打不开的。作者记录了比格犬是否会因此采取人类导向的社会行为，比如寻求与人类视线接触等。并用SNP芯片分析了190只比格犬的基因型。分析结果显示，SEZ6L基因中的一个遗传标记与人体接触以及亲近的时间显著相关。ARVCF基因中的两个提示性标记也与寻求人体接触有关。值得注意的是，在人类基因组相同连锁区域中有四个基因可以影响人的社交能力，例如，SEZ6L与自闭症有关，儿茶酚氧位甲基转移酶（COMT）能够影响多动症青少年的攻击性。到目前为止，这是第一个关于狗社交能力和种属间交流的全基因组研究，上述研究结果提高了我们对狗驯化的认识，并且有助于狗用于建立新的人际交往障碍疾病模型。

引用文献
PerssonME, et al. Genomic Regions Associated With Interspecies Communication in DogsContain Genes Related to Human Social Disorders. Sci Rep, 2016, Sep 29;6:33439.

Abstract

Unlike their wolfancestors, dogs have unique social skills for communicatingand cooperating with humans. Previously, significant heritabilitiesfor human-directed social behaviors have been found inlaboratory beagles. Here, a Genome-Wide Association Study identifiedtwo genomic regions associated withdog's human-directed social behaviors. We recorded thepropensity of laboratory beagles, bred, kept and handled under standardizedconditions, to initiate physical interactions with a human during anunsolvable problem-task, and 190 individuals were genotyped with an HD CanineSNP-chip. One genetic marker on chromosome 26 within the SEZ6L gene wassignificantly associated with time spent close to, and in physicalcontact with, the human. Two suggestive markers on chromosome 26, locatedwithin the ARVCF gene, werealso associated with human contact seeking. Strikingly,four additional genespresent in the same linkage blocksaffect social abilities in humans, e.g., SEZ6L hasbeen associated with autism and COMT affects aggression inadolescents with ADHD. This is, to our knowledge, the first genome-wide studypresenting candidate genomic regionsfor dog sociability andinter-species communication. These results advance our understanding ofdog domestication and raise the use of the dog as a novel model systemfor human social disorders.