As Dr. Bruce Williams is prone to joking, "Oh, oh! Sukie's thinking
again!"

Boulder of salt time since I am throwing out some speculations.

The enclosed quotes are from a Sci News article which will be in in
your library, or available now at
<http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20061104/bob9.asp> for
subscribers, and non-subscribers should be able to get it in a week.

A possibly weird question arises: there are already "Star Gene" (not
the adrenal steroid work StAR Gene) studies derived first from fox
domestication which show a suite of characteristics that rapidly arise
with domestication: neotany, neural crest genetic variant types of
markings, gentle behavior, reduced tendency to startle, etc. It has
been postulated that the basic mutation(s) for domestication involve
reduced amounts of more slowly generated epinephrin. (So, already,
domestication may involve adrenal changes, and since some neural crest
variations increase malignancies perhaps an increased vulnerability
on that score ultimately, perhaps even an increased vulnerability to
mutation of involved genetic loci). (BTW, there are also indications
that humans have perhaps been domesticating themselves.)

<http://www.floridalupine.org/publications/PDF/trut-fox-study.pdf>

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/25/health/25rats.html?=_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin>

<http://ferrethealth.org/archive/SG17988>

<http://www.floridalupine.org/publications/PDF/trut-fox-study.pdf>

<http://reactor-core.org/taming-foxes.html>

<http://7e.devbio.com/article.php?id=223>


HERE IS THE FURTHER QUESTION: Is it also possible that the neotany that
arises with domestication CHANGES THE ***RATE*** OF AGING compared with
wild relatives? If so, could an increased rate of malignancies beyond
those which can be associated with some neural crest variations be a
side effect in that way of domestication itself?

Now remember that these are not wild mice modified for youthful
characteristics (neotany), but instead are domestic mice modified to
have great reductions in the effects of aging:

>Dorian Gray, the everlasting dandy of Oscar Wilde's novel, halted
>aging. Rather than his body growing old, his portrait suffered the
>insults of time. In recent years, biologists have created real-life
>Dorian Grays: mice that don't show certain signs of age. But in both
>the story and the lab, there were trade-offs. By remaining young, the
>fictional Dorian Gray became self-destructive. In the scientific
>plotline, the specially bred mice develop cancer and die young.
...

>Scientists create such mice by inserting mutations in one of two
>important tumor-suppressing genes that mice and people share. The
>result has revealed a deep link between cancer and aging. Cancer
>depends on over-enthusiastic cell replication, whereas replication
>typically dwindles during aging. In a sense, according to the new
>findings, growing old is the flip side of fending off cancer.
>
>"Aging itself may be part of the body's anticancer machinery," says
>Viktor Janzen, a hematologist-oncologist at the University of Tobingen
>in Germany. 
...

>Sharpless and his team created two strains of mice for use in
>several experiments. The strains differ in their production of 
>the protein p16, also called p16INK4a. The substance suppresses
>replication of cancerous cells.
...

>Scientists had previously noted that p16 becomes more abundant with age
>in some types of mammalian tissue. The new experiments, reported in three
>papers in the Sept. 28 Nature, establish that p16 contributes directly to
>the age-related process called regenerative senescence, which gradually
>erodes cells' capacity to replicate.
> 
>Mammals and other long-lived organisms must continually replace cells in
>their tissues as existing ones wear out. "Declining proliferation is a
>cause of mammalian aging," says Sharpless.

I can't recall ever encountering any studies comparing rates of aging
between wild and domesticated animals, and am not entirely sure how it
would be accurately measured, though the study mentioned may provide
the start of being able to do so.

-- Sukie (not a vet, and not speaking for any of the below in my
private posts)
Recommended health resources to help ferrets and the people who love
them:
Ferret Health List
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
AFIP Ferret Pathology
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
Miamiferrets
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
International Ferret Congress Critical References
http://www.ferretcongress.org

[Posted in FML 5417]