More than 200 genes were involved in yak domestication

This is not exactly news, but from a paper I only discovered recently. It’s by Qiu et al. from 2015 and reports that 209 genes were found to be likely involved in the domestication of the yak about 7000 years ago [1]. 

Of these 209 genes, more than 30 are associated with brain and neuronal development, 19 other genes with behaviour and only a few genes with physical appearance and economically relevant traits [1]. 

This could provide insights to the question how many genes were affected in the domestication of cattle, which would tell how many genes would have to be edited in order to recreate the aurochs with genome editing. It makes a difference if one would deal with 20 genes, or 2000, for technical and practical reasons. Considering the findings from yaks, the number of genes where aurochs and cattle differ might at least be in the three-digit area. It has to be kept in mind that yaks are not nearly as strongly domesticated as highly derived cattle breeds. Basically all yak breeds are landraces, and gene flow from the wild populations into the domestic yak has never ceased to occur [1]. 

 

[1] Qiu et al.:  Yak whole-genome resequencing reveals domestication signatures and prehistoric population expansions. 2015.