Mammal domestication and the symbiotic spectrum

In their paper in PNAS, Weissbrod et al. (1) conclude that mice adapted to the temporary sedentary lifestyle of humans during the Late Pleistocene and underwent a domestication process driven by a competitive advantage for commensal mice in the evolving, long-term human settlements. The authors expand the possibility of an early interaction between wild mammals and humans to other wild species, wild boars and wolves, as examples of “following commensal pathways before developing long-term mutualism characteristic of domestication” (1). We wish to deliberate on both the process and its nature, with …