Meeting Abstract

P1.83  Saturday, Jan. 4 15:30  The Canine Methylome: the impact of domestication on the regulatory genome. GNANADESIKAN, GE*; VONHOLDT, BM; Princeton University; Princeton University ggnanade@princeton.edu

Domestic organisms provide a particularly useful context in which to study behavioral questions because the process of domestication itself involved artificial selection primarily on the basis of behavior. For example, several canine behavioral traits (e.g. trainability) have recently been genetically mapped as quantitative trait loci in a comparative genomics approach across distinct breeds. Many complex phenotypes, such as behavior, are likely a consequence of both polygenic and regulatory variation. An inspection of the epigenome of domestic dogs and wolves, their wild progenitor, could therefore reveal how differential gene regulation plays a major role in shaping behavioral traits along with the suite of morphological changes associated with species domestication. As this domestication syndrome appears across multiple domestic species, this suggests that a shift in regulation may have been a major step in domestication. We therefore expect significant and important differences in the epigenomes of dogs and wolves. One component of the epigenome known to be highly involved in both genetic regulation and behavior is the methylome, particularly in regions with high CpG content. We have therefore performed CpG enriched bisulfite sequencing of 62 dogs and 35 Yellowstone wolves with average coverage of 24- and 32-fold, respectively. Through our analysis of the methylome, we will identify differentially methylated regions and explore gene body methylation patterns which will establish the first comparative glimpse into the regulatory genome of dogs and wolves and may illuminate the role of gene regulation in domestication.