A must-read article in the NY Times.  Hopefully, people can get it if
they go there fast enough.  If not, there are always off-shoot reports
elsewhere when the Times carries an interesting topic (which this is),
and libraries often carry the articles.
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/25/health/25rats.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
 
This links into the old "star gene" hypothesis.
 
Given the medical problems that are also associated with some neural
crest genetic variants it would be interesting if domestication itself
might help set the stage for certain vulnerabilities.
 
Title and author in case a library is needed:
Nice Rats, Nasty Rats: Maybe It's All in the Genes
by Nicholas Wade
 
QUOTING SEGMENTS
 
>Could a single gene that affects the timing of neural crest cell
>development underlie the whole phenomenon of animal and human
>domestication?
 
 ...
 
>One possibility is that a handful of genes -- perhaps even just one --
>underlie all the changes seen in domestication.  A structure in the
>embryo of all vertebrates, known as the neural crest, is the source of
>cells that constitute much of the face, skull and pigment cells, and
>many parts of the peripheral nervous system and endocrine system.  If
>the genes in the neural crest cells were delayed just a little in coming
>into action, a whole range of tissues could be affected, including the
>maturation of the adrenal glands that underlies the first fear response
>of young animals, Dr. Fitch has written.
 
...
 
>His strategy is to cross the tame rats with the ferocious rats and
>then score the progeny for how much of each trait they inherit.  He
>hopes to identify 200 sites along the genome at which the tame and
>ferocious rats differ.  If one or more of the sites correlate with
>tameness or fierceness in the progeny, they will probably lie near
>important genes that underlie one of the two traits.
 
...
 
>The genes, if Mr. Albert finds them, would be of great interest because
>they are presumably the same in all species of domesticated mammal.
>That may even include humans.  Richard Wrangham, a primatologist at
>Harvard, has proposed that people are a domesticated form of ape,
>the domestication having been self-administered as human societies
>penalized or ostracized individuals who were too aggressive.
 
-- 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 issue 5315]