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A guinea fowl genome assembly provides new evidence on evolution following domestication and selection in galliformes
Author(s) -
Vignal Alain,
Boitard Simon,
Thébault Noémie,
Dayo GuiguigbazaKossigan,
YapiGnaore Valentine,
Youssao Abdou Karim Issaka,
BerthoulySalazar Cécile,
PálinkásBodzsár Nóra,
Guémené Daniel,
ThibaudNissen Francoise,
Warren Wesley C.,
TixierBoichard Michèle,
Rog Xavier
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
molecular ecology resources
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.96
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1755-0998
pISSN - 1755-098X
DOI - 10.1111/1755-0998.13017
Subject(s) - domestication , biology , galliformes , plumage , range (aeronautics) , zoology , genome , natural selection , evolutionary biology , selection (genetic algorithm) , ecology , genetics , gene , materials science , artificial intelligence , computer science , composite material
The helmeted guinea fowl Numida meleagris belongs to the order Galliformes. Its natural range includes a large part of sub‐Saharan Africa, from Senegal to Eritrea and from Chad to South Africa. Archaeozoological and artistic evidence suggest domestication of this species may have occurred about 2,000 years BP in Mali and Sudan primarily as a food resource, although villagers also benefit from its capacity to give loud alarm calls in case of danger, of its ability to consume parasites such as ticks and to hunt snakes, thus suggesting its domestication may have resulted from a commensal association process. Today, it is still farmed in Africa, mainly as a traditional village poultry, and is also bred more intensively in other countries, mainly France and Italy. The lack of available molecular genetic markers has limited the genetic studies conducted to date on guinea fowl. We present here a first‐generation whole‐genome sequence draft assembly used as a reference for a study by a Pool‐seq approach of wild and domestic populations from Europe and Africa. We show that the domestic populations share a higher genetic similarity between each other than they do to wild populations living in the same geographical area. Several genomic regions showing selection signatures putatively related to domestication or importation to Europe were detected, containing candidate genes, most notably EDNRB 2 , possibly explaining losses in plumage coloration phenotypes in domesticated populations.