Golden Retriever Genes Linked to Human Traits

21:16went smoothly on the board itself. I think this could be super fun. >> be really fun. >> so again, let us know in the comments if you are intrigued by Are You Smarter Than Scientist and would like to see us bring that segment into the rundown episode on a regular basis. We are going to now go into our third story of the day, which was the one about the link the a shared genetic link between humans and dogs. And this is about golden retriever genes linked to anxiety, aggression, and intelligence in humans out of the University of Cambridge and the Morris Animal Foundation in the Proceedings of

21:57the National Academy of Sciences. >> Yeah, this was a really cool one. Um, they studied 1,300 golden retrievers, and it turns out that not all golden retrievers have the same personality. I mean, anyone who has multiple golden retrievers or has seen multiple golden retrievers knows this. They're not like a one brand type dog. There's dogs that are shy, there are dog There are dogs that are, you know, a little timid. There's dogs that are very, very social. So, there's enough genetic variation within golden retrievers where when these scientists studied 1,300 golden retrievers, they could figure out genes that were related to certain traits. Each of these 1,300 golden retrievers, the owners of

22:38those dogs got like a little questionnaire about like, you know, personality traits for your dog, and then they could correlate using the genetic data certain genes with certain traits. And then when they went and looked at humans and those human traits, the same genes mapped to the similar human traits. >> Interesting. >> Interesting. So, there's there's two kind of points of data. There's sort of a a quantitative data which is the genetic piece >> and there's like a qualitative data point which is the the survey. >> Exactly. >> And they there was the survey there was a reference point both for dogs and the personality traits on the qualitative side and humans. >> And when they met they looked at the

23:19genes that were being expressed that mapped to the personalities on in dogs >> Yeah. >> based on the feedback from the owners. What's interesting is that if you point to those same genes in humans the same qualitative data >> Yes. >> matches up. >> Yeah. And you can you can map the genes together because even though obviously the the golden retriever gene and the human gene are not going to be identical. >> Sure. >> we're humans. >> Yes. >> But you can look at the sequence of nucleotides the ATGC ATGC and you can find overlap where like this gene is like there's only very few mutations, right? So it's definitely the same gene. >> Yeah. >> And then from that they can figure out these genes that are actually related. There's one gene for example PTPN1.

23:59This was linked to aggression towards other dogs in golden retrievers and it's associated with intelligence and depression in humans. >> Mhm. >> So not same same >> Yes. >> but it's really kind of this meta behavioral state >> Right. >> or personality type >> Yes. >> that these genes are controlling. That's what they were very careful about like making that distinction. That this is not like you know a one-to-one mapping >> Mhm. >> but it's rather like a shared biological root for overarching personality. >> It's it's more meant to be a framework versus like a purely like for lack of a better term like diagnostic >> Exactly. >> discrete diagnostic tool.

24:40>> Yeah. >> And it helps create a a a scaffolding by which to kind of architect the structures uh and then you can swap out the variables within those structures as that makes sense. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> And it also like leads to like insights in training dogs for example >> Yeah. Yeah. >> because like certain dogs might just be a certain way because of the genetic makeup, mhm, right? And it has nothing to do with like their history or like so on and so forth. Here's a quote from one of the lead researchers. Um, if your golden retriever cowers behind the sofa every time the doorbell rings, perhaps you might have a bit more empathy if you know they're genetically driven to feel sensitive and anxious.

25:20>> As >> from this researcher from the University of Cambridge, Ana Morris Nuevo. >> It's it's funny. Um, as a uh someone who has three dogs >> Mhm. >> who have very, very, very distinct and different personalities. Um it it it's an interesting just to think about. Um, and and also I as we continue to sort of in a variety cuz we've touched a lot of genetic stories. >> Yeah. >> Um, especially in the last couple of weeks. And just the breadth and depth of the increase in our in our understanding of like this fundamental like, you know, the instruction manual for how our

26:02bodies and all like living beings like create the stuff the factories. >> Yeah. >> Right? And the and the the IP that generates it's as we continue to learn more, it it it's not only the understanding piece, which is the first step, uh but that understanding is also and already being applied uh because there's a whole variety of things we can now do uh because we actually know the map. >> Yep. >> Uh we actually have that baseline reference point. Uh and we always love a dog story. >> Yes, always. Whenever I see dog stories in science news, I'm like, yep, we're going to cover it. >> Uh the uh the corgi story continues to be I think our most popular dog story.

26:43>> Yes. >> And then the the whale, the pods attacking the >> That's our biggest animal >> story. >> It's actually our biggest story ever, which I still can't >> it's still so surprising to me. Um we're going to wrap up the rundown today. Again, super casual Friday, almost summer Fridays. Here it's 92° in