Mitochondrial DNA Variability of Domestic River Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) Populations: Genetic Evidence for Domestication of River Buffalo in Indian Subcontinent

Abstract

River buffalo, Bubalus bubalis is a large bovine species frequently used livestock in southern Asia. It is believed that the river buffalo was domesticated from Bubalus arnee, the wild buffalo of mainland Asia, a few thousand years ago, probably during the period of Indus Valley civilization. However, the domestication history of the river buffalo has been the subject of debate for many decades mainly due to the lack of clear archeological evidence and the divisive conclusions of the genetic studies. Therefore, in order to understand the domestication history and genetic relationship among the various river buffalo populations, we analyzed 492-bp region of mitochondrial DNA control region sequences of 414 river buffalo sampled from India, Pakistan, Egypt, and Iran along with the available 403 swamp buffalo sequences. The phylogenetic analyses of our study along with the archaeological evidence suggest that the river buffalo was domesticated in an atypical manner involving continuous introgression of wild animals to the domestic stocks in Indian subcontinent prior to mature phase of Indus Valley civilization (2600–1900 BC). Specifically, our data exclude Mesopotamian region as the place of domestication of the river buffalo.

Strong and stable geographic differentiation of swamp buffalo maternal and paternal lineages indicates domestication in the China/Indochina border region

“…S3, Supporting information, Nagarajan et al . ) indicates a phylogeographic structure of the maternal lineages of river buffalo that is weaker than observed for cattle (Lenstra et al . ), sheep (Cai et al .…”

The deep human prehistory of global tropical forests and its relevance for modern conservation

“…123 Temporal and geographical information comes from Pearsall 124. , Clement et al 125 130 . 131 have shown that the area that our figure shows was subject to intensive land use for several centuries between the 8 th and 12 th centuries CE, punctuated by episodes of severe erosion.…”

Asian water buffalo: domestication, history and genetics

“…in Pakistan, India, Egypt and the Mediterranean; Hassan et al ; Babar et al ; Mishra et al ), and further suggested that the post‐domestication migration from the Indian subcontinent towards western Asia and Europe took place gradually and without substantial population bottlenecks (Zhang et al ). Further mtDNA evidence also pointed to a repeated incorporation of wild buffalo mtDNA variants into the Indian domestic stocks following domestication (Nagarajan et al ). As has been done for swamp buffaloes (Wang et al ), extending the evaluation of river buffalo mitochondrial diversity to the whole mtDNA genome should provide a better understanding of river buffalo domestication and dispersal.…”

“…Divergence of the two types clearly preceded their domestication, as molecular evidence (Kumar et al ; Nagarajan et al ) indicates domestication of the river buffalo in the western region of the Indian subcontinent around 6.3 kyr BP, and of the swamp buffalo in the China/Indochina border region (Zhang et al , ; Wang et al ), with a time of domestication of 3–7 kyr BP (Wang et al ). Domestication of both types was followed by a rapid expansion of their population sizes (Finlay et al ; Wang et al ), partly owing to the improving climatic conditions during the Holocene post‐glacial phase and also to the geographical spread of domesticated animals.…”

“…Haplogroup R1 constitutes the major and most frequent lineage, followed by the less frequent R2 and the rare R3 (75.4, 16.4 and 8.2% respectively, Zhang et al ). The highest haplotype diversity values were found in the Indian populations, with diversity decreasing towards the Mediterranean (Nagarajan et al ).…”