October 2015

Dogs are domestic animals that descended from the grey wolf about 15 thousand years ago. Over the last few hundred years, humans have generated a number of dog ‘breeds’ by selecting for desirable traits, either physical traits (eg size, shape, hair length or colour) or behavioural characters (herding, pointing, retrieving etc). As a downside of this selection, many breeds also display pre-dispositions to certain diseases. With the advent of high throughput DNA sequencing, the genetic basis of the differences between dog breeds and of their genetic diseases is being elucidated.

Pollinators have become popular in the press, the general public and in political spheres. Much of the argument for supporting pollinators is based on the fact that they contribute to food production by pollinating entomophilous crops. This is valuable for several reasons: for food security for an ever expanding human population, to contribute to healthy diets as many insect-pollinated crops contain essential and desirable vitamins, to provide consumer choice and access to luxury foods, and because crop production has an economic value.