The origin of European cattle: Evidence from modern and ancient DNA

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2006

Authors

beja-pereira, a (Author) FCUP; caramelli, d (Author) Other; lalueza-fox, c (Author) Other; vernesi, c (Author) Other; ferrand, n (Author) FCUP; casoli, a (Author) Other; goyache, f (Author) Other; royo, lj (Author) Other; conti, s (Author) Other; lari, m (Author) Other; martini, a (Author) Other; ouragh, l (Author) Other; magid, a (Author) Other; atash, a (Author) Other; zsolnai, a (Author) Other; boscato, p (Author) Other; triantaphylidis, c (Author) Other; ploumi, k (Author) Other; sineo, l (Author) Other; mallegni, f (Author) Other; taberlet, p (Author) Other; erhardt, g (Author) Other; sampietro, l (Author) Other; bertranpetit, j (Author) Other; barbujani, g (Author) Other; luikart, g (Author) Other; bertorelle, g (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Vol. 103

Pages: 8113-8118

ISSN: 0027-8424

Publisher: National Academy of Sciences

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 230 Citations

Scopus - 260 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-004-KQP

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0509210103

Abstract (EN): Cattle domestication from wild aurochsen was among the most important innovations during the Neolithic agricultural revolution. The available genetic and archaeological evidence points to at least two major sites of domestication in India and in the Near East, where zebu and the taurine breeds would have emerged independently. Under this hypothesis, all present-day European breeds would be descended from cattle domesticated in the Near East and subsequently spread during the diffusion of herding and farming lifestyles. We present here previously undescribed genetic evidence in contrast with this view, based on mtDNA sequences from five Italian aurochsen dated between 7,000 and 17,000 years B.P. and > 1,000 modern cattle from 51 breeds. Our data are compatible with local domestication events in Europe and support at least some levels of introgression from the aurochs in Italy. The distribution of genetic variation in modern cattle suggest also that different south European breeds were affected by introductions from northern Africa. If so, the European cattle may represent a more variable and valuable genetic resource than previously realized, and previous simple hypotheses regarding the domestication process and the diffusion of selected breeds should be revised.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 6