Incorporation of aurochs into a cattle herd in Neolithic Europe: single event or breeding?

Schibler, Jörg; Elsner, Julia; Schlumbaum, Angela

doi:10.1038/srep05798

Cited by 46 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Here it is interesting to note that in Anatolian sites dating to the early Chalcolithic (in Çatalhöyük west and in Erbaba in the Lakes district), more than one millennium after the initial decrease in sheep body size, sheep body sizes again rise to wild caprine levels, a pattern that has been interpreted as a sign of wild introgression 3 . Similar patterns have been reported for pigs, cattle and goats, supported by both zooarchaeological analysis 3 as well as ancient DNA 31,32 . To fully elucidate the history of early sheep domestication, though, we will need to study ancient DNA data from a wider region of southwest Asia.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Archaeogenetic analysis of Neolithic sheep from Anatolia suggests a complex demographic history since domestication

Yurtman

Özer

Yüncü

et al. 2020

Preprint

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22Sheep was among the first domesticated animals, but its demographic history is little 23 understood. Here we present combined analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear polymorphism 24 data from ancient central and west Anatolian sheep dating to the Late Glacial and early 25 Holocene. We observe loss of mitochondrial haplotype diversity around 7500 BCE during the 26 early Neolithic, consistent with a domestication-related bottleneck. Post-7000 BCE, 27 mitochondrial haplogroup diversity increases, compatible with admixture from other 28 domestication centres and/or from wild populations. Analysing archaeogenomic data, we 29 further find that Anatolian Neolithic sheep (ANS) are genetically closest to present-day 30 European breeds, and especially those from central and north Europe. Our results indicate that 31 Asian contribution to south European breeds in the post-Neolithic era, possibly during the 32 Bronze Age, may explain this pattern.33 34 35 36 65 traits across the globe, especially within the last 5 millennia, as part of the secondary products 66 revolution 18,19 . Although the first domesticated sheep were likely used for their meat and 67 possibly their milk 20 , they started to be increasingly exploited for their wool in Bronze Age SW 68 Asia, during the 3rd millennium BCE 21 . Intriguingly, a comparison of DNA retroelements 69 across modern breeds implies an expansion of SW Asian lineages, estimated to date back to the 70 Bronze Age; according to this model, SW Asian sheep with desired traits, such as fine wool, 71 were introduced into local breeds across the globe 22 . A recent ancient DNA study reports 72 evidence consistent with novel breeds being introduced to Bronze Age Europe, coinciding with 73 archaeological evidence for the introduction of wool to this continent 21 . In later periods, export 74 and admixture of selected sheep breeds into local stocks continued 11 . Indeed, the most recent 75 common ancestor of domestic sheep breeds has been inferred to date back only 800 generations 76 ago 11 -an unexpectedly recent estimate. 77 4We currently lack a solid demographic history model to explain these observations: high 78 diversity, clear genetic structure, and recent coalescence times. What is missing is genetic data 79 on the initial steps of domestication and characterisation of the early domesticated sheep gene 80 pool. Here we present a first attempt to bridge this gap, studying ancient DNA from Neolithic 81 period sheep remains from Anatolia, one of the possible domestication centres. Analysing both 82 mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences and nuclear polymorphism data, we find support for 83 the notions that the present-day domestic sheep population has multiple origins, and also that 84 the sheep gene pool changed considerably since the Neolithic period. 85 86 Results 87 We analysed DNA from c.200 archaeological sheep bone and tooth samples from early 88 Holocene Anatolia, originating from six different sites from central and west Anatolia and 89spanning the Epipaleolithic, Neolithic, and Ch...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

Archaeogenetic analysis of Neolithic sheep from Anatolia suggests a complex demographic history since domestication

Yurtman

Özer

Yüncü

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…One of the most likely explanations for this result is gene flow from British aurochs (or continental European aurochs from the same meta-population) into the ancestors of north-western and southern-central (IBR-ALP) European cattle breeds. Several scenarios have been put forward for post-domestication hybridisation between wild aurochs and the ancestors of extant domestic cattle breeds (Götherström et al , 2005; Beja-Pereira et al , 2006; Achilli et al , 2008; Schibler et al , 2014). Using 15 498 SNP markers derived from the same aurochs WGS data used here, Park et al (2015) also provided evidence for gene flow from aurochs into the ancestors of north-western European cattle breeds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, previous studies (Edwards et al , 2007; Scheu et al , 2008) investigating the mitochondrial haplotypes of more than one hundred ancient aurochs samples that were retrieved from multiple sites of northern and central Europe only identified P and E haplotypes, which exclude a significant contribution of local aurochs to the maternal lineages of European domestic cattle. On the other hand, many Italian and one Swiss aurochs not only carried P, but also T mitochondrial haplotypes (Mona et al , 2010; Lari et al , 2011; Schibler et al , 2014), so maternal gene flow from native wild aurochs to local domestic cattle may have taken place there. Contrary to mtDNA, studies involving Y-chromosome haplogroups have remained equivocal as to whether gene flow between local aurochs and domestic cattle has occurred (Götherström et al , 2005; Bollongino et al , 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic origin, admixture and population history of aurochs (Bos primigenius) and primitive European cattle

et al. 2016

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The domestication of taurine cattle initiated ~10 000 years ago in the Near East from a wild aurochs (Bos primigenius) population followed by their dispersal through migration of agriculturalists to Europe. Although gene flow from wild aurochs still present at the time of this early dispersion is still debated, some of the extant primitive cattle populations are believed to possess the aurochs-like primitive features. In this study, we use genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms to assess relationship, admixture patterns and demographic history of an ancient aurochs sample and European cattle populations, several of which have primitive features and are suitable for extensive management. The principal component analysis, the model-based clustering and a distance-based network analysis support previous works suggesting different histories for north-western and southern European cattle. Population admixture analysis indicates a zebu gene flow in the Balkan and Italian Podolic cattle populations. Our analysis supports the previous report of gene flow between British and Irish primitive cattle populations and local aurochs. In addition, we show evidence of aurochs gene flow in the Iberian cattle populations indicating wide geographical distribution of the aurochs. Runs of homozygosity (ROH) reveal that demographic processes like genetic isolation and breed formation have contributed to genomic variations of European cattle populations. The ROH also indicate recent inbreeding in southern European cattle populations. We conclude that in addition to factors such as ancient human migrations, isolation by distance and cross-breeding, gene flow between domestic and wild-cattle populations also has shaped genomic composition of European cattle populations.

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“…Domestic cattle and their wild relatives occupied the same geographic regions for a long period of time, which raises the possibility that both taurine and indicine cattle naturally hybridized with aurochs or that local farmers mixed them with local aurochs to restock their herds (McTavish et al., ; Troy et al., ). Uniparental loci such as mtDNA and Y‐chromosome studies have generally underplayed the significance of admixture with wild aurochs, as haplotypes present in ancient DNA samples are often closely related but phylogenetically distinct from those in extant cattle samples (Edwards et al., ; Götherström et al., ; Schibler, Elsner, & Schlumbaum, ; Troy et al., ). However, there is evidence of gene flow from wild aurochs prior to the extinction (~400 YA) into extant cattle in areas such as Italy, Iberia, southern Europe and the British Isles (Achilli et al., ; Park et al., ; Upadhyay et al., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Domestication of cattle: Two or three events?

Pitt

Sevane

Nicolazzi

et al. 2018

Evolutionary Applications

105

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Cattle have been invaluable for the transition of human society from nomadic hunter‐gatherers to sedentary farming communities throughout much of Europe, Asia and Africa since the earliest domestication of cattle more than 10,000 years ago. Although current understanding of relationships among ancestral populations remains limited, domestication of cattle is thought to have occurred on two or three occasions, giving rise to the taurine (Bos taurus) and indicine (Bos indicus) species that share the aurochs (Bos primigenius) as common ancestor ~250,000 years ago. Indicine and taurine cattle were domesticated in the Indus Valley and Fertile Crescent, respectively; however, an additional domestication event for taurine in the Western Desert of Egypt has also been proposed. We analysed medium density Illumina Bovine SNP array (~54,000 loci) data across 3,196 individuals, representing 180 taurine and indicine populations to investigate population structure within and between populations, and domestication and demographic dynamics using approximate Bayesian computation (ABC). Comparative analyses between scenarios modelling two and three domestication events consistently favour a model with only two episodes and suggest that the additional genetic variation component usually detected in African taurine cattle may be explained by hybridization with local aurochs in Africa after the domestication of taurine cattle in the Fertile Crescent. African indicine cattle exhibit high levels of shared genetic variation with Asian indicine cattle due to their recent divergence and with African taurine cattle through relatively recent gene flow. Scenarios with unidirectional or bidirectional migratory events between European taurine and Asian indicine cattle are also plausible, although further studies are needed to disentangle the complex human‐mediated dispersion patterns of domestic cattle. This study therefore helps to clarify the effect of past demographic history on the genetic variation of modern cattle, providing a basis for further analyses exploring alternative migratory routes for early domestic populations.

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Incorporation of aurochs into a cattle herd in Neolithic Europe: single event or breeding?

Cited by 46 publications

References 27 publications

Archaeogenetic analysis of Neolithic sheep from Anatolia suggests a complex demographic history since domestication

Archaeogenetic analysis of Neolithic sheep from Anatolia suggests a complex demographic history since domestication

Genetic origin, admixture and population history of aurochs (Bos primigenius) and primitive European cattle

Domestication of cattle: Two or three events?

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