Journal Article

Grey wolf genomic history reveals a dual ancestry of dogs

Reiter, Ella, Kasparov, Aleksei K, The Natural History Museum [London] (NHM), Androsov, Semyon, Plotnikov, Valerii V, Groves, Pam, Conard, Nicholas J, Nikolskiy, Pavel, Dalén, Love, Orlando, Ludovic, Gopalakrishnan, Shyam, Zazula, Grant, Kurmaniyazov, Islam, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science ; UCD, Swedish Museum of Natural History (NRM), Stanton, David W. G, Shapiro, Beth, Pavlova, Elena Y, Ramos-Madrigal, Jazmin, Ersmark, Erik, Perri, Angela R, Swali, Pooja, Pinhasi, Ron, Stockholm University, Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique = Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (IRSNB / RBINS), Sinding, Mikkel-Holger S, Götherström, Anders, Krause, Johannes, Outram, Alan, Histoire naturelle de l'Homme préhistorique (HNHP) ; Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Université de Perpignan Via Domitia (UPVD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Protopopov, Albert V, Brace, Selina, Centre d'anthropologie et de génomique de Toulouse (CAGT) ; Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3) ; Université de Toul

2022

Overview

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 1–8 . 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.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group,CCSD,Nature Publishing Group UK
• Subject: 45/23 / 45/77 / 631/158/2464 / 631/181/2474 / 631/181/27 / 631/181/457 / Africa / Animal populations / Animals / Biodiversity and Ecology / Canidae / Canis lupus / Canis lupus familiaris / Coyotes / Diversity of life / DNA, Ancient - analysis / Dogs / Dogs - genetics / Domestication / Endangered & extinct species / Environmental Sciences / Europe / Extinct species / Extinction / Genealogy / Genetic diversity / Genome - genetics / Genomes / Genomics / History, Ancient / Humanities and Social Sciences / Ice ages / Livets mångfald / Middle East / multidisciplinary / Mutation / Natural selection / North America / Phylogeny / Pleistocene / Populations / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Selection, Genetic / Siberia / Species extinction / Tumor Suppressor Proteins - genetics / Wolves / Wolves - classification / Wolves - genetics