Golden retriever and human behaviours are driven by same genes. Really!

Why the Golden Retriever? This research was even published in the once prestigious PNAS!

I believe my genes are driven by the Chihuahua genes! Just kidding! 😊

How the lovely Golden Retriever or the love for dogs messed up the minds of scientists? A case of wishful thinking involving our most favorite pet?

Or can GWAS studies prove anything? Call me a little bit skeptical here!

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

Dogs display temperamental and behavioral variation and possess tractable genetics, making them a compelling model for studying the genetics of psychiatric, temperamental, and cognitive traits.

Using a behavioral questionnaire, we phenotyped over 1,000 golden retrievers and identified 12 genome-wide significant loci and 9 suggestive loci.

Of the 18 proximal candidate genes at these loci, 12 were also associated with psychiatric, temperamental, or cognitive traits in humans.

Seven of these genes were at genome-wide loci and five at suggestive loci.

For example, the gene nearest the dog-directed aggression locus, PTPN1, is associated in humans with intelligence, cognitive performance, educational attainment, and major depressive disorder. These findings suggest shared genetic mechanisms underlying behavior across species and inform emotional states underlying canine behaviors.

Abstract

Dogs display temperamental and behavioral variation between individuals, just as psychiatric, temperamental, and cognitive traits vary in humans.

In both species, these traits are highly heritable, yet causal genes remain incompletely understood.

We performed 14 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for behavioral traits quantified using the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ) in ~1,000 golden retrievers, identifying 12 genome-wide significant loci (P < 2.97 × 10−6) for 8 traits and 9 additional loci exceeding a suggestive threshold (P < 1 × 10−5).

A human phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) showed that most of the 18 canine positional candidate genes identified were associated with one or more of 190 psychiatric, temperamental, or cognitive traits in humans (7/12 genes at genome-wide loci and 5/9 at suggestive loci).

For example, a genome-wide significant locus near PTPN1 (dog-directed aggression) overlapped with human measures of Intelligence, Educational attainment, and major depressive disorder.

The gene ROMO1 was within a genome-wide significant locus for trainability in dogs and associated with intelligence, depression, irritability, and sensitivity/hurt feelings in humans.

Other genes located at genome-wide significant loci associated with behavioral, psychiatric, temperamental, or cognitive traits in both species included PRDX1(dog-directed fear), VWA8 (touch sensitivity), ITPR2, and ADGRL2/LPHN2 (trainability), and ADD2 (stranger-directed fear).

From suggestive loci we also found cross-species associations for HUNK, and ZC3H12C, (dog-directed fear), SLC35F6 and IGSF11 (separation-related problems).

These results suggest that shared genetic and molecular mechanisms underlie complex behavioral and temperamental states across species and may inform our understanding of emotional states driving undesirable behaviors in dogs."

Golden retriever and human behaviours are driven by same genes | University of Cambridge "Researchers have discovered that genes underlying specific behavioural traits in golden retrievers - from trainability to fear of strangers - also shape human personality and mental health."

GWAS for behavioral traits in golden retrievers identifies genes implicated in human temperament, mental health, and cognition (open access)

Fig. 1 Manhattan plots of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of behavioral traits in golden retrievers highlighting loci associated with C-BARQ factor scores.