Open AccessAncient DNA Evidence from China Reveals the Expansion of Pacific Dogs
Author(s) -
Ming Zhang,
Guoping Sun,
Lele Ren,
Haibing Yuan,
Dong Guo,
Lizhao Zhang,
Feng Liu,
Peng Cao,
Albert Min-Shan Ko,
Melinda A. Yang,
Songmei Hu,
Guodong Wang,
Qiaomei Fu
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
molecular biology and evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.637
H-Index - 218
eISSN - 1537-1719
pISSN - 0737-4038
DOI - 10.1093/molbev/msz311
Subject(s) - ancient dna , biology , biological dispersal , domestication , lineage (genetic) , haplogroup , china , mitochondrial dna , haplotype , zoology , ecology , archaeology , geography , demography , population , gene , genetics , allele , sociology
The ancestral homeland of Australian dingoes and Pacific dogs is proposed to be in South China. However, the location and timing of their dispersal and relationship to dog domestication is unclear. Here, we sequenced 7,000- to 2,000-year-old complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genomes of 27 ancient canids (one gray wolf and 26 domestic dogs) from the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins (YYRB). These are the first complete ancient mtDNA of Chinese dogs from the cradle of early Chinese civilization. We found that most ancient dogs (18/26) belong to the haplogroup A1b lineage that is found in high frequency in present-day Australian dingoes and precolonial Pacific Island dogs but low frequency in present-day China. Particularly, a 7,000-year-old dog from the Tianluoshan site in Zhejiang province possesses a haplotype basal to the entire haplogroup A1b lineage. We propose that A1b lineage dogs were once widely distributed in the YYRB area. Following their dispersal to South China, and then into Southeast Asia, New Guinea and remote Oceania, they were largely replaced by dogs belonging to other lineages in the last 2,000 years in present-day China, especially North China.