New World cattle show ancestry from multiple independent domestication events

Abstract

Significance Cattle were independently domesticated from the aurochs, a wild bovine species, in the vicinity of the current countries of Turkey and Pakistan ∼10,000 y ago. Cattle have since spread with humans across the world, including to regions where these two distinct lineages have hybridized. Using genomic tools, we investigated the ancestry of cattle from across the world. We determined that the descendants of the cattle brought to the New World by the Spanish in the late 1400s show ancestry from multiple domesticated lineages. This pattern resulted from pre-Columbian introgression of genes from African cattle into southern Europe.

Interrogation of modern and ancient genomes reveals the complex domestic history of cattle

“…Recent analysis of high-density SNP data confirm the genetic affinity between New World and Iberian cattle and has revealed levels of African admixture in modern American breeds that is higher than previously estimated from historical records and genetic analyses based on STR and mtDNA data; these results suggest that the African ancestry observed in modern American populations is, in part, of direct African origin (Gautier and Naves, 2011). However, more recent SNP-based studies of American cattle genetic diversity suggests that this African genetic influence was present in Iberian cattle before the introduction of cattle to the New World; these findings support an Iberian origin for the African ancestry observed in modern New World populations (McTavish et al, 2013;Decker et al, 2014).…”

“…More recent Indian zebu genetic influence in New World populations is supported by several lines of evidence including mtDNA (Magee et al, 2002;Paneto et al, 2008), Y chromosome microsatellites (Giovambattista et al, 2000), and autosomal STR and SNP genetic markers (Liron et al, 2006;Egito et al, 2007;Achilli et al, 2009;McTavish et al, 2013). Interestingly, McTavish et al (2013) suggest that the zebu ancestry observed in New World cattle may have originated, in part, from the founding Iberian cattle of the Americas; however, the lack of zebu ancestry in Iberian cattle has led Decker and colleagues (2014) to refute this and propose that zebu introgression in the Americas occurred after the arrival of Iberian cattle in the New World.…”

“…Interestingly, McTavish et al (2013) suggest that the zebu ancestry observed in New World cattle may have originated, in part, from the founding Iberian cattle of the Americas; however, the lack of zebu ancestry in Iberian cattle has led Decker and colleagues (2014) to refute this and propose that zebu introgression in the Americas occurred after the arrival of Iberian cattle in the New World.…”

Highly Divergent Hepaciviruses from African Cattle

“…The domestication of cattle took place about 10,000 years ago through several independent events that involved cross-breeding of different (sub)species and establishment of large cattle herds (39,42). This may have favored transmission of specific HV strains or recombination events preventing virus divergence.…”

Genomic response to natural selection within alpine cattle breeds

“…The final dataset was created by merging of new and previously published genotypes. The genotypes of the following cattle breeds were used: Pinzgau sires (n = 19) with the Slovak origin (Illumina BovineSNP50 v2 BeadChip; Illumina Inc., USA), Austrian Pinzgau (n = 105), Brown Swiss (n = 103), and Tyrol Grey (n = 105) sires described in Ferencakovic et al (2013) (Illumina BovineSNP50 v1 BeadChip), Slovenian Cika sires and dams (n = 26) and dams (Illumina BovineSNP50 v2 BeadChip) described in Simcic et al (2015), as well as Swiss Simmental (n = 78) and Italian Piedmontese (n = 29) breeds described in McTavish et al (2013). To merge datasets consistently the consensus map with common SNPs across all breeds was created and overall 42 262 SNPs were retained in a reduced panel of loci.…”