| 1. |
- Bergström, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Grey wolf genomic history reveals a dual ancestry of dogs
- 2022
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 607:7918, s. 313-320
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was the first species to give rise to a domestic population, and they remained widespread throughout the last Ice Age when many other large mammal species went extinct. Little is known, however, about the history and possible extinction of past wolf populations or when and where the wolf progenitors of the present-day dog lineage (Canis familiaris) lived. Here we analysed 72 ancient wolf genomes spanning the last 100,000 years from Europe, Siberia and North America. We found that wolf populations were highly connected throughout the Late Pleistocene, with levels of differentiation an order of magnitude lower than they are today. This population connectivity allowed us to detect natural selection across the time series, including rapid fixation of mutations in the gene IFT88 40,000–30,000 years ago. We show that dogs are overall more closely related to ancient wolves from eastern Eurasia than to those from western Eurasia, suggesting a domestication process in the east. However, we also found that dogs in the Near East and Africa derive up to half of their ancestry from a distinct population related to modern southwest Eurasian wolves, reflecting either an independent domestication process or admixture from local wolves. None of the analysed ancient wolf genomes is a direct match for either of these dog ancestries, meaning that the exact progenitor populations remain to be located.
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| 2. |
- Bro-Jørgensen, Maiken Hemme, et al.
(författare)
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Ancient DNA analysis of Scandinavian medieval drinking horns and the horn of the last aurochs bull
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Archaeological Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 0305-4403 .- 1095-9238. ; 99, s. 47-54
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aurochs (Bos primigenius) was once widespread in Europe, Asia and North Africa. The aurochs was both the ancestor of domestic cattle, and co-existed alongside them for millennia post domestication, before going extinct in 1627. Several studies have suggested that admixture occurred between wild aurochs populations and domestic cattle. To contribute towards our understanding of this process, we generated near complete mitochondrial genomes (between 15063 and 16338 nucleotides) from material derived from the horn of the last aurochs bull (died in 1620) as well as five medieval period Scandinavian drinking horns that have been attributed to aurochs based on their size. Phylogenetic analysis on the data shows that three drinking horns carry European aurochs haplotype P, while two of the drinking horns and the horn of the last aurochs bull carry modern domestic taurine cattle T haplotypes. Our results therefore demonstrate that drinking horns may represent a unique source of material with which to study aurochs genetics, and that the last European aurochs likely underwent a degree of admixture with domestic cattle. We anticipate that future analysis of the nuclear DNA content of such horns will be able to shed further light into the specifics of these admixture events.
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| 3. |
- Pečnerová, Patrícia, et al.
(författare)
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Population genomics of the muskox' resilience in the near absence of genetic variation
- 2024
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Ingår i: Molecular Ecology. - 0962-1083 .- 1365-294X. ; 33:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Genomic studies of species threatened by extinction are providing crucial information about evolutionary mechanisms and genetic consequences of population declines and bottlenecks. However, to understand how species avoid the extinction vortex, insights can be drawn by studying species that thrive despite past declines. Here, we studied the population genomics of the muskox (Ovibos moschatus), an Ice Age relict that was at the brink of extinction for thousands of years at the end of the Pleistocene yet appears to be thriving today. We analysed 108 whole genomes, including present-day individuals representing the current native range of both muskox subspecies, the white-faced and the barren-ground muskox (O. moschatus wardi and O. moschatus moschatus) and a ~21,000-year-old ancient individual from Siberia. We found that the muskox' demographic history was profoundly shaped by past climate changes and post-glacial re-colonizations. In particular, the white-faced muskox has the lowest genome-wide heterozygosity recorded in an ungulate. Yet, there is no evidence of inbreeding depression in native muskox populations. We hypothesize that this can be explained by the effect of long-term gradual population declines that allowed for purging of strongly deleterious mutations. This study provides insights into how species with a history of population bottlenecks, small population sizes and low genetic diversity survive against all odds.
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