Feature Genetics

DNA evidence is rewriting domestication origin stories

Fresh ideas emerge about the origins of humans’ relationships with their favorite species

dog portrait

THE ROAD TO TAMENESS  Dogs, perhaps humans’ most familiar friends, share developmental features with many other domesticated beasts. Tales of animal and plant domestication are being retold, with some exciting genetic twists.

Jody Hewgill

By Tina Hesman Saey

This article is only available to Science News subscribers.

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address to access our archives.

Not a subscriber?

Science News is a nonprofit.

Support us by subscribing now.

More Stories from Science News on Genetics

  1. scientists in Estatuas cave
    Humans

    Neandertal DNA from cave mud shows two waves of migration across Eurasia

    By Charles Choi
  2. crowd of Japanese commuters wearing masks
    Anthropology

    A coronavirus epidemic may have hit East Asia about 25,000 years ago

    By Bruce Bower
  3. human skull from early humans in Europe
    Genetics

    Europe’s oldest known humans mated with Neandertals surprisingly often

    By Bruce Bower
  4. rabbit standing on front paws
    Animals

    A gene defect may make rabbits do handstands instead of hop

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús
  5. Jennifer Doudna presenting at an NIH event
    Genetics

    ‘The Code Breaker’ tells the story of CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna

    By Ashley Yeager
  6. illustration of slinky structures in archaea dna
    Microbes

    Archaea microbes fold, twist and contort their DNA in extreme ways

    By Emiliano Rodríguez Mega
  7. illustration of a woman walking across of a bridge of DNA
    Genetics

    DNA databases are too white, so genetics doesn’t help everyone. How do we fix that?

    By Tina Hesman Saey
  8. street scene in Lagos, Nigeria
    Genetics

    The first human genetic blueprint just turned 20. What’s next?

    By Tina Hesman Saey

From the Nature Index

Paid Content