All modern dogs, from beefy Newfoundlands to skinny Salukis, are descended from an ancient population of domesticated gray wolves. Although some 20,000 years have passed since then, a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that most living dog breeds have detectable levels of wolf DNA in their genomes.
These gene signals may contribute to characteristics that have shaped our relationship with dogs for millennia, including personality, sense of smell and body size. The dogs' enduring wolf ancestry, the authors of the new paper write, “has shaped their evolution and given them unique advantages for survival in a diverse human environment.”
“Modern dogs, especially domestic dogs, may seem so far removed from the often demonized wolves,” Audrey Lin, a bioinformatician at the American Museum of Natural History and co-author of the study, said in her paper. press release. “But there are some characteristics that may have come from wolves that we value in dogs today and that we prefer to keep in their bloodlines.”
Can 20,000 years separate dogs and wolves?
Dogs and wolves, despite similar geographic ranges, rarely interbreed. This meant that previous analyzes had concluded that domestic dogs were unlikely to carry much residual wolf DNA, Lin said. But her team's careful analysis showed that wolf the origin lies in the genomes of modern dogs.
“This suggests that dog genomes can carry over wolf DNA to unknown levels and still be the dogs we know and love,” Lin added.
Lin's new study examined the genomes of more than 2,700 dogs and wolves spanning 20,000 years of history, housed at the National Center for Biotechnology Information and the European Nucleotide Archive. More than two thirds of modern dog breeds still retain DNA wolf interbreeding that occurred 1000 generations ago. Interestingly, 100 percent of free-roaming village dogs living in and around populated areas were of wolf origin.
The highest levels of wolf origin were found in samples taken from wolfdogs of Czechoslovakia and Saarloos. These high levels are not surprising since the breeds were created by deliberately crossing German Shepherds with Carpathian and Siberian gray wolves, respectively.
Among the dogs that did not undergo targeted crossbreeding, the leaders were samples of two Grand Anglo-French tricolor hounds with 5.7% and 4.7% of wolf origin, respectively. These findings were unexpected because these dogsthe most common hound in modern France, it has no recognized history of interbreeding with wolves.
Trends in wolf DNA
Additionally, the Grand Anglo-Francais Tricolore had the highest variance of all breeds analyzed, and some other dogs of the same breed contained very low levels of wolf DNA. The two distant tricolors had far more wolf ancestry than even the Tamaskan dog, which was created by combining different Arctic dog breeds to create a wolf-like appearance. The Tricolor, Tamaskan and Shiloh Shepherd were the only breeds with more than 2 percent wolf ancestry.
The study also revealed broader trends. Levels of wolf DNA were higher in larger dogs and in those bred for sled work. The team found the lowest average levels of wolf ancestry in terriers, gun dogs and hounds. Larger guard dogs tended to be of low wolf ancestry, although a small number of individuals with high ancestry skewed their average.
In turn, the tiny Chihuahuas had an average of 0.2 percent wolf ancestry.
What words make a dog more like a wolf?
The team also analyzed which words were most and least often used to describe high- and low-wolf dog breeds. Dogs with high wolf ancestry were likely described as “suspicious of strangers”, “vigilant”, “loyal” and “territorial”. Breeds with low wolf ancestry, in contrast, were most often described as “friendly,” “willing to please,” “easy to train,” “brave,” “lively,” and “gentle.” Any connections between this behavior and wolf DNA are purely correlational. The team says more research is needed to establish a cause-and-effect relationship.
The team identified two specific cases where certain dog breeds benefited from wolf ancestry. Tibetan Mastiffs have high levels of a wolf-derived gene that allows them to tolerate low oxygen levels in their high-altitude territory. Some village dogs had olfactory receptor genes with high levels of wolf origin. To survive, these free-roaming dogs must be able to sniff out food.
“Dogs are our friends, but wolves clearly played a large role in shaping them into the companions we know and love today,” Logan Kistler, study co-author and curator at the National Museum of Natural History, said in a press release.
Read more: Why does a wolf pack leader exist?
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