Ancient mitochondrial genome depicts sheep maternal dispersal and migration in eastern Asia

Liu Yang; Xing Zhang; Yaning Hu; Piao Zhu; Hua Li; Zhenyu Peng; Hai Xiang; Xinying Zhou; Xingbo Zhao

doi:10.1016/j.jgg.2023.06.002

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Ancient mitochondrial genome depicts sheep maternal dispersal and migration in eastern Asia

doi: 10.1016/j.jgg.2023.06.002

a
National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding; Key Laboratory of Animal, Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs; College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
b
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Molecular Design and Precise Breeding; School of Life Science and Engineering, Foshan University, Foshan, Guangdong 528225, China
c
State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Genomics, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518083, China
d
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China

Funds: We express sincere thanks to Prof. Jing Yuan (Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Science) for generously providing the ancient samples. This work was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFF1000701), the Young S&T Talent Training Program of Guangdong Provincial Association for S&T, China (SKXRC202205), the Foundation for the Creative Team and Key Laboratory in Higher Education of Guangdong (2019KCXTD006 and 2019KSYS011), and the National Natural Science Foundations of China (31961133031).

Received Date: 2023-04-22
Revised Date: 2023-05-20
Accepted Date: 2023-06-05

Available Online: 2023-06-15

Abstract

Abstract

Sheep have been one of the most important groups of animals since ancient times. However, the knowledge of their migration routes and genetic relationships is still poorly understood. To investigate sheep maternal migration histories alongside Eurasian communications routes, in this study, we obtain mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) from 17 sheep remains in 6 Chinese sites and 1 Uzbekistan site dated 4429–3100 years before present (BP). By obtaining the mitogenomes from the sheep (4429–3556 years old) found in Tongtian Cave site in Xinjiang, Altai region of northwest China, our results support the emergence of haplogroup C sheep in Xinjiang as early as 4429–3556 BP. The combined phylogenetic analyses with extant ancient and modern sheep mitogenomes suggest that the Uzbekistan-Altai region might have been a migration hub for early sheep in eastern Asia. At least two migration events have taken place for sheep crossing Eurasia to China, one passing by Uzbekistan and Northwest China to the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River at approximately 4000 BP and another following the Altai region to middle Inner Mongolia from 4429–2500 BP. Overall, this study provides further evidence for early sheep utilization and migration patterns in eastern Asia.
- sheep,
- ancient DNA,
- eastern Asia,
- mitochondrial genome,
- migration,
- Altai

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References(80)

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