Existence of $opt^c$-approximation of Dominating Set with $c < 1$?
I think it is still open if Dominating Set or Hitting Set have a f(OPT) approximation for some (nontrivial) function f. This is should be a very difficult (and possible deep) question to answer. I consider it the most exciting question in parameterized approximation (along with the analogous question for Clique). You might want to have a look at my survey [1] that discusses this. Note that it is shown in the more recent paper [2] that "monotone circuit satisfiability for weft-2 circuits", a problem which is more general than Dominating Set, does not have f(OPT) approximation for any f.

[1] D. Marx. Parameterized complexity and approximation algorithms.
The Computer Journal, 51(1):60-78, 2008.

[2] D. Marx. Completely inapproximable monotone and antimonotone parameterized problems.
In Proceedings of the 25th Annual IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 181-187, 2010.