Estimating the heritability of cognitive traits across dog breeds reveals highly heritable inhibitory control and communication factors.

ABSTRACT: Trait heritability is necessary for evolution by both natural and artificial selection, yet we know little about the heritability of cognitive traits. Domestic dogs are a valuable study system for questions regarding the evolution of phenotypic diversity due to their extraordinary intraspecific variation. While previous studies have investigated morphological and behavioral variation across dog breeds, few studies have systematically assessed breed differences in cognition. We integrated data from Dognition.com-a citizen science project on dog cognition-with breed-averaged genetic data from published sources to estimate the among-breed heritability of cognitive traits using mixed models. The resulting dataset included 11 cognitive measures for 1508 adult dogs across 36 breeds. A factor ana

SUBMITTER: Gnanadesikan GE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7423733 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature