Owning a dog is influenced by our genetic make-up

养狗受我们的基因影响

上海译锐翻译    2019-5-22    9:38 a.m. 

Scientists have studied the heritability of dog ownership using information from 35,035 twin pairs from the Swedish Twin Registry. The new study suggests that genetic variation explains more than half of the variation in dog ownership, implying that the choice of getting a dog is heavily influenced by an individual's genetic make-up.

科学家利用瑞典双胞胎登记处的35,035对双胞胎信息研究养狗的遗传可能性。新研究发现，超过一半的养狗方面的变化可以归因于遗传变异，这意味着选择养狗会受到个人基因组成的强烈影响。

A team of Swedish and British scientists have studied the heritability of dog ownership using information from 35,035 twin pairs from the Swedish Twin Registry. The new study suggests that genetic variation explains more than half of the variation in dog ownership, implying that the choice of getting a dog is heavily influenced by an individual's genetic make-up.

一个由瑞典和英国科学家所组成的研究团队利用瑞典双胞胎登记处中35,035对双胞胎信息对养狗的遗传性展开了研究。新的研究表明，超过一半的养狗变化取决于基因变体，这意味着选择是否养狗深受个人基因组成的影响。

Dogs were the first domesticated animal and have had a close relationship with humans for at least 15,000 years. Today, dogs are common pets in our society and are considered to increase the well-being and health of their owners. The team compared the genetic make-up of twins (using the Swedish Twin Registry -- the largest of its kind in the world) with dog ownership. The results are published for the first time in Scientific Reports. The goal was to determine whether dog ownership has a heritable component.

狗是第一个被驯养的动物。狗与人的亲密关系已经维持了至少15000年。如今，狗是我们社会中常见的宠物。人们认为狗可以增加主人的幸福感并改善主人的健康。研究团队将双胞胎的基因组成与养狗进行了对比（数据来自瑞典双胞胎登记处-全球规模最大的双胞胎数据库）。研究结果被首次刊登在《科学报告》中。研究人员希望通过研究来判断养狗是否和遗传有关。

"We were surprised to see that a person's genetic make-up appears to be a significant influence in whether they own a dog. As such, these findings have major implications in several different fields related to understanding dog-human interaction throughout history and in modern times. Although dogs and other pets are common household members across the globe, little is known how they impact our daily life and health. Perhaps some people have a higher innate propensity to care for a pet than others." says Tove Fall, lead author of the study, and Professor in Molecular Epidemiology at the Department of Medical Sciences and the Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University.

“我们很惊讶地发现，一个人的基因组成会对他们是否养狗产生重要影响。同样地，这些结果对于数个不同的领域也有重要的影响。这些领域与了解历史上以及现代社会中人和狗的互动有关。尽管狗和其他宠物已经成为全球家庭中常见的家庭成员，但是对于其如何影响我们的日常生活和健康，我们却知之甚少。也许有些人在内心深处更倾向于照顾宠物而不是其他人”，Tove Fall，该研究第一作者，Uppsala大学药学系与生命科学实验室分子流行病学教授表示。

Carri Westgarth, Lecturer in Human-Animal interaction at the University of Liverpool and co-author of the study, adds: "These findings are important as they suggest that supposed health benefits of owning a dog reported in some studies may be partly explained by different genetics of the people studied."

Carri Wesgarth，利物浦大学人与动物交流专业讲师，本研究作者，补充表示：“这些研究结果有重要意义，因为这些结果表明，在某些研究中所提到的养狗对健康的益处可能部分归因于研究对象不同的基因。”

Studying twins is a well-known method for disentangling the influences of environment and genes on our biology and behaviour. Because identical twins share their entire genome, and non-identical twins on average share only half of the genetic variation, comparisons of the within-pair concordance of dog ownership between groups can reveal whether genetics play a role in owning a dog. The researchers found concordance rates of dog ownership to be much larger in identical twins than in non-identical ones -- supporting the view that genetics indeed plays a major role in the choice of owning a dog.

研究双胞胎是一个著名的方法，这一方法可以分清环境和基因对我们生物和行为的影响。由于同卵双胞胎拥有整个染色体组，而非同卵双胞胎平均只共享一半的基因变异，对比不同双胞胎在养狗方面的内在一致性可以判断出基因是否在养狗中扮演着重要的作用。研究人员发现，同卵双胞胎中养狗的一致率要比非同卵双胞胎高得多-这也印证了基因确实在选择养狗方面发挥着重要作用这一观点。

"These kind of twin studies cannot tell us exactly which genes are involved, but at least demonstrate for the first time that genetics and environment play about equal roles in determining dog ownership. The next obvious step is to try to identify which genetic variants affect this choice and how they relate to personality traits and other factors such as allergy" says Patrik Magnusson, senior author of the study and Associate Professor in Epidemiology at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Insitutet, Sweden and Head of the Swedish Twin Registry.

“这类双胞胎研究无法让我们了解到底是哪种基因对其有影响，但至少首次证实基因和环境在确定是否养狗方面扮演着几乎同样重要的作用。接下来显然就是尝试发现哪一种基因变体会对这一选择有影响以及它们是如何与个性以及其他因素，比如过敏产生关联的”，Patrik Magnusson，瑞典人，研究资深作者、Karolinska学院医学流行病学及生物统计学系流行病学助教、瑞典双胞胎登记处主管表示。

"The study has major implications for understanding the deep and enigmatic history of dog domestication" says zooarchaeologist and co-author of the study Keith Dobney, Chair of Human Palaeoecology in the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool. "Decades of archaeological research have helped us construct a better picture of where and when dogs entered into the human world, but modern and ancient genetic data are now allowing us to directly explore why and how?"

“研究对了解深奥以及神秘的犬类驯化历史有着深刻的影响”，数十年来的考古研究已经帮助我们构建了一副更加清晰的画面。在这里，我们可以知道犬类是从何处以及何时走进人类世界。但是，现代以及古代的基因数据可以让我们直接探索这些原因以及方式”，Keith Dobeny，动物园考古学家、本研究的共同作者、利物浦大学考古、古典以及埃及学系人类古生态学主席表示。

文章来源：科学日报    编辑：质控部Susan