The maternal origin of indigenous domestic chicken from the Middle East, the north and the horn of Africa

Abstract

Background: Indigenous domestic chicken represents a major source of protein for agricultural communities around the world. In the Middle East and Africa, they are adapted to hot dry and semi-dry areas, in contrast to their wild ancestor, the Red junglefowl, which lives in humid and sub-humid tropical areas. Indigenous populations are declining following increased demand for poultry meat and eggs, favouring the more productive exotic commercial breeds. In this paper, using the D-loop of mitochondrial DNA as a maternally inherited genetic marker, we address the question of the origin and dispersal routes of domestic chicken of the Middle East (Iraq and Saudi Arabia), the northern part of the African continent (Algeria and Libya) and the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia). Results: The analysis of the mtDNA D-loop of 706 chicken samples from Iraq (n = 107), Saudi Arabia (n = 185), Algeria (n = 88), Libya (n = 23), Ethiopia (n = 211) and Pakistan (n = 92) show the presence of five haplogroups (A, B, C, D and E), suggesting more than one maternal origin for the studied populations. Haplogroup E, which occurred in 625 samples, was the most frequent in all countries. This haplogroup most likely originates from the Indian subcontinent and probably migrated following a terrestrial route to these different countries. Haplotypes belonging to haplogroup D were present in all countries except Algeria and Libya, it is likely a legacy of the Indian Ocean maritime trading network. Haplogroup A was present in all countries and may be of commercial origin. Haplogroup B was found only in Ethiopia. Haplogroup C was only detected in the SouthWestern region of Saudi Arabia and in Ethiopia. Conclusion: The results support a major influence of the Indian subcontinent on the maternal diversity of the today's chicken populations examined here. Most of the diversity occurs within rather than between populations. This lack of phylogeographic signal agrees with both ancient and more recent trading networks having shaped the modern-day diversity of indigenous chicken across populations and countries.

Mitochondrial DNA variation and phylogeography of Old World camels

“…Furthermore, Fu’s F s [ 25 ] and Tajima’s D [ 26 ] statistics were also considered using the infinite sites model in Arlequin v3.5 [ 27 ]. Tajima’s D is negative, indicating that there is an excess of low-frequency polymorphisms relative to expectations, and the population size is expanding (both bottlenecks or selective sweep) or purification selection is occurring [ 28 ]. Positive Tajima’s D signifies low levels of high frequency polymorphisms, explaining a decrease in population size and/or balancing selection.…”

Geographic Origin and Genetic Characteristics of Japanese Indigenous Chickens Inferred from Mitochondrial D-Loop Region and Microsatellite DNA Markers

“…Haplogroups C and D are exhibited in populations from Africa, Madagascar, South to East Asia, and the Pacific islands [11][12][13][14][15]. Haplogroup E is broadly distributed in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and South America [11,12,14,16,17]. Haplogroups F and G are found to be restricted to Southwestern China and Southeast Asia [11,12,18].…”

Domestic chicken diversity: Origin, distribution, and adaptation

“…In North and West Africa, mtDNA analysis indicates the predominant presence of a single haplogroup that probably originated from the Indian subcontinent (e.g. Adebambo et al 2010;Hassaballah et al 2015;Al-Jumaili et al 2020;Boudali et al 2020). Chicken dispersion in North Africa may have followed the terrestrial and the Mediterranean sea trading routes (Al-Jumaili et al 2020).…”

“…Chicken dispersion in North Africa may have followed the terrestrial and the Mediterranean sea trading routes (Al‐Jumaili et al . 2020). North–south trans‐Saharan trading routes and movements along the Sahelian belt probably brought the domestic chicken to West Africa in pre‐European times (Adebambo et al .…”