Comparative Population Genomics of Arctic Sled Dogs Reveals a Deep and Complex History.

ABSTRACT: Recent evidence demonstrates genomic and morphological continuity in the Arctic ancestral lineage of dogs. Here, we use the Siberian Husky to investigate the genomic legacy of the northeast Eurasian Arctic lineage and model the deep population history using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms. Utilizing ancient dog-calibrated molecular clocks, we found that at least two distinct lineages of Arctic dogs existed in ancient Eurasia at the end of the Pleistocene. This pushes back the origin of sled dogs in the northeast Siberian Arctic with humans likely intentionally selecting dogs to perform different functions and keeping breeding populations that overlap in time and space relatively reproductively isolated. In modern Siberian Huskies, we found significant population structure based

SUBMITTER: Smith TA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11403282 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature