Domestication process of the goat revealed by an analysis of the nearly complete mitochondrial protein-encoding genes.

ABSTRACT: Goats (Capra hircus) are one of the oldest domesticated species, and they are kept all over the world as an essential resource for meat, milk, and fiber. Although recent archeological and molecular biological studies suggested that they originated in West Asia, their domestication processes such as the timing of population expansion and the dynamics of their selection pressures are little known. With the aim of addressing these issues, the nearly complete mitochondrial protein-encoding genes were determined from East, Southeast, and South Asian populations. Our coalescent time estimations suggest that the timing of their major population expansions was in the Late Pleistocene and significantly predates the beginning of their domestication in the Neolithic era (≈10,000 years ago). The ω (ra

SUBMITTER: Nomura K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3731342 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature