Research paper
GWAS for behavioral traits in golden retrievers identifies genes implicated in human temperament, mental health, and cognition
This research highlights the genetic overlap in behavioral traits between dogs and humans, suggesting that understanding dog behavior could lead to better treatments and interventions for emotional and mental health issues in both dogs and their owners.
This study shows that certain genes in golden retrievers are linked to behavioral traits like aggression and trainability, which also correspond to similar traits in humans, including intelligence and mental health issues. Understanding these genetic connections can help improve dog behavior and our approach to mental health in both dogs and humans.
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Identified 12 specific gene regions linked to 8 behavioral traits in golden retrievers.
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Most of these genetic regions in dogs are also associated with psychiatric and cognitive traits in humans.
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Genes like PTPN1 are related to aggression in dogs and human intelligence, while ROMO1 links trainability in dogs to human emotional traits.
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Suggestive genetic links also exist for separation anxiety in dogs and its behavioral parallels in people.
Dogs display temperamental and behavioral variation between individuals, just as psychiatric, temperamental, and cognitive traits vary in humans. In both species, these traits are highly heritable, yet causal genes remain incompletely understood. We performed 14 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for behavioral traits quantified using the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ) in ~1,000 golden retrievers, identifying 12 genome-wide significant loci (P -6) for 8 traits and 9 additional loci exceeding a suggestive threshold (P -5). A human phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) showed that most of the 18 canine positional candidate genes identified were associated with one or more of 190 psychiatric, temperamental, or cognitive traits in humans (7/12 genes at genome-wide loci and 5/9 at suggestive loci). For example, a genome-wide significant locus near PTPN1 (dog-directed aggression) overlapped with human measures of Intelligence, Educational attainment, and major depressive disorder. The gene ROMO1 was within a genome-wide significant locus for trainability in dogs and associated with intelligence, depression, irritability, and sensitivity/hurt feelings in humans. Other genes located at genome-wide significant loci associated with behavioral, psychiatric, temperamental, or cognitive traits in both species included PRDX1(dog-directed fear), VWA8 (touch sensitivity), ITPR2, and ADGRL2/LPHN2 (trainability), and ADD2 (stranger-directed fear). From suggestive loci we also found cross-species associations for HUNK, and ZC3H12C, (dog-directed fear), SLC35F6 and IGSF11 (separation-related problems). These results suggest that shared genetic and molecular mechanisms underlie complex behavioral and temperamental states across species and may inform our understanding of emotional states driving undesirable behaviors in dogs.