The canine species is the oldest domesticated species about, 15,000 years ago, and today consists of more than 350 breeds resulting from a drastic artificial selection and inbreeding practices during centuries. My PhD thesis is dedicated to the study of the period dominated by natural selection during the evolution of canids and the recent period of breeds creation by intense artificial selection. We have identified the catalog of genes under positive selection in 10 species (dog, Human, marmoset, macaque, orangutan, chimpanzee, mouse, rat, horse and cow) from 10,730 genes in orthology relationship type 1: 1. The canine species has more genes under positive selection in common with Laurasatheria and rodents than the expected. We then identified the catalog of regions of allelic differentiation between dog breeds using genotype data of 170,000 SNPs in 456 dogs of 30 breeds, in collaboration with the team of Dr. Matthew Webster ( University of Uppsala, Sweden) as part of the European consortium of dog genetics named LUPA. These regions are candidates to be targets of the artificial selection. This project is continuing by the comparison of natural and artificial selection to determine whether there are regions of the genome that are constantly affected by the selection, and to determine whether the canine species may be considered as a reduced, but accelerated simulation of the mammals radiation.
