Comprehensive study of mtDNA among Southwest Asian dogs contradicts independent domestication of wolf, but implies dog-wolf hybridization.

ABSTRACT: Studies of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diversity indicate explicitly that dogs were domesticated, probably exclusively, in southern East Asia. However, Southwest Asia (SwAsia) has had poor representation and geographical coverage in these studies. Other studies based on archaeological and genome-wide SNP data have suggested an origin of dogs in SwAsia. Hence, it has been suspected that mtDNA evidence for this scenario may have remained undetected. In the first comprehensive investigation of genetic diversity among SwAsian dogs, we analyzed 582 bp of mtDNA for 345 indigenous dogs from across SwAsia, and compared with 1556 dogs across the Old World. We show that 97.4% of SwAsian dogs carry haplotypes belonging to a universal mtDNA gene pool, but that only a subset of this pool, five of the 10

SUBMITTER: Ardalan A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3287314 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature