Pre-Columbian origins of Native American dog breeds, with only limited replacement by European dogs, confirmed by mtDNA analysis - PubMed (original) (raw)

Pre-Columbian origins of Native American dog breeds, with only limited replacement by European dogs, confirmed by mtDNA analysis

Barbara van Asch et al. Proc Biol Sci. 2013.

Abstract

Dogs were present in pre-Columbian America, presumably brought by early human migrants from Asia. Studies of free-ranging village/street dogs have indicated almost total replacement of these original dogs by European dogs, but the extent to which Arctic, North and South American breeds are descendants of the original population remains to be assessed. Using a comprehensive phylogeographic analysis, we traced the origin of the mitochondrial DNA lineages for Inuit, Eskimo and Greenland dogs, Alaskan Malamute, Chihuahua, xoloitzcuintli and perro sín pelo del Peru, by comparing to extensive samples of East Asian (n = 984) and European dogs (n = 639), and previously published pre-Columbian sequences. Evidence for a pre-Columbian origin was found for all these breeds, except Alaskan Malamute for which results were ambigous. No European influence was indicated for the Arctic breeds Inuit, Eskimo and Greenland dog, and North/South American breeds had at most 30% European female lineages, suggesting marginal replacement by European dogs. Genetic continuity through time was shown by the sharing of a unique haplotype between the Mexican breed Chihuahua and ancient Mexican samples. We also analysed free-ranging dogs, confirming limited pre-Columbian ancestry overall, but also identifying pockets of remaining populations with high proportion of indigenous ancestry, and we provide the first DNA-based evidence that the Carolina dog, a free-ranging population in the USA, may have an ancient Asian origin.

Keywords: America; dog; haplotype; mitochondrial DNA; mtDNA; pre-Columbian.

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Figures

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Minimum-spanning network of dog mtDNA control region (582 bp) haplotypes for phylogenetic clades A, B and C. Haplotypes (circles) and empty nodes (solid dots) are separated by one substitutional step (indels are ignored). Phylogenetic subclades were defined based on sequences of mt genomes [4] and are indicated by green lines. Haplotypes found among American dogs are indicated by red colour, haplotypes unique to America by solid red and haplotypes shared with other regions by red outline, and their haplotype names are indicated. Representation of the haplotypes in other regions is indicated as follows. By solid circles: yellow, unique to East Asia (including Siberia) not counting America; green, unique to Siberia not counting America; blue, unique to Europe not counting America. By half circles (indicating sharing of haplotypes): yellow/blue, present in both East Asia and Europe; yellow/white, present in East Asia but absent in Europe; blue/white, present in Europe but absent in East Asia. Solid white, all other geographical representations. Larger sized circles indicate the 15 universal haplotypes (UTs).

Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Minimum-spanning network of dog mtDNA control region (244 bp) haplotypes for clades (A and B), comparing the modern samples with ancient American sequences from Leonard et al. [8]. Haplotypes (circles) and empty nodes (solid dots) are separated by one substitutional step (indels are ignored). The colours of the circles represent the geographical distribution of haplotypes as described in the legend to figure 1. Black solid circles indicate the ancient sequences, the numbering indicating the haplotype names used in Leonard et al. Dashed lines indicate that the ancient sequence is identical to the connected modern haplotype. The haplotypes of the modern samples sometimes correspond to several different full-length haplotypes (based on 582 bp); the name of one among these is indicated for haplotypes found among American samples. Larger sized circles represent universal haplotypes (UTs).

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