Genome-wide diversity and global migration patterns in dromedaries follow ancient caravan routes.

ABSTRACT: Dromedaries have been essential for the prosperity of civilizations in arid environments and the dispersal of humans, goods and cultures along ancient, cross-continental trading routes. With increasing desertification their importance as livestock species is rising rapidly, but little is known about their genome-wide diversity and demographic history. As previous studies using few nuclear markers found weak phylogeographic structure, here we detected fine-scale population differentiation in dromedaries across Asia and Africa by adopting a genome-wide approach. Global patterns of effective migration rates revealed pathways of dispersal after domestication, following historic caravan routes like the Silk and Incense Roads. Our results show that a Pleistocene bottleneck and Medieval expansion

SUBMITTER: Lado S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7366924 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature