DALLA DOMESTICAZIONE ALLA GENOMICA, COME L’UOMO MODIFICA LE SPECIE ANIMALI CHE ALLEVA

The paper briefly reviews the main steps of animal breeding starting from livestock domestication. The major cultural changes in biology comprehension during XIX and XX centuries are reported with some emphasis on the meaning of the infinitesimal model interpreting quantitative phenotypes. Genomic analysis, dominant on the scenes since the beginning of this century, is explored in a wider way. Genomic selection, production traceability and association between economic traits and specific regions of genome are briefly discussed.