Gene Linked to Autism May Affect Dog Sociability

According to researchers, variants in a gene associated with autism in humans may influence a dog's people-seeking behavior. According to animal behaviorist Per Jensen at Linköping University in Sweden, the gene, SEZ6L, is one of five genes in a particular stretch of beagle DNA, that is associated with sociability in dogs, Jensen mentioned that, “What we figure has been going on here is that there are genetic variants that tend to make dogs more sociable and these variants have been selected during domestication.” Researchers looked for places in the dogs’ DNA where the most and least human-friendly dogs differed and found a region where genes could be involved in social interactions with people.