I am listening to a lot of radio programmes as a part of my curriculum (M.Sc. Science communication). Here's something that I came across: Domestication of animals is linked to neural crest cell migration during development! (Neural crest cells are a group of cells which are formed during early development of the embryo. These cells actually travel through the length of the embryo and form different organs in different areas of the body. eg: neural connections in the gut, parts of bones, adrenal gland ).
This made me think about the paper we had once discussed in Arunan sir's class ( during my other M.Sc. in Life Sciences and Neurobiology) about hierarchy and how it affects the colouring pattern in fish. Some species of fish develop different colourations depending upon their position in the hierarchy in a pond.
Can these two cases be following similar pathways? But the argument is that the colouring patterns in the fish appear after birth and due to effects of competition and stress. So, are the factors which contribute to these changes in the fish linked to any of the organs formed by neural crest cells? In the case of the experiment on domestication of foxes (which incidentally have evolved over a period of thousands of years as dogs), it was found that the adrenal gland (a neural crest cell derivative) reduced in size and function on domestication. As did other neural crest cell derived features like ears which are more pointed (floppy in dogs), tails which are straighter (curved in dogs) etc.
The implications of something similar happening in humans was also discussed in the programme. We are becoming gentler and more tolerant over the years.[which explains globalization and the fact that we can live in different countries without being frowned upon (sometimes yes) or killed as food by the natives].
I am intrigued. Thinking about it now.
http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2008/08/domestication_its_a_matter_of.php
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2493746/
Couldn't find the fish paper which we had referred to in class, this is something similiar though:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T2J-4KDV0J8-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1121489900&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=bc1e2377ab063aea49bb59022c981525
This is the radio programme is was listening to (check out the "New normal" episode): http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/
