Arctic-adapted dogs emerged at the Pleistocene–Holocene transition

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Sinding, Mikkel-Holger S., Gopalakrishnan, Shyam, Ramos-Madrigal, Jazmín, de Manuel, Marc, Pitulko, Vladimir V., Kuderna, Lukas, Feuerborn, Tatiana R., Frantz, Laurent A. F., Vieira, Filipe G., Niemann, Jonas, Samaniego Castruita, Jose A., Carøe, Christian, Andersen-Ranberg, Emilie U., Jordan, Peter D., Pavlova, Elena Y., Nikolskiy, Pavel A., Kasparov, Aleksei K., Ivanova, Varvara V., Willerslev, Eske, Skoglund, Pontus, Fredholm, Merete, Wennerberg, Sanne Eline, Heide-Jørgensen, Mads Peter, Dietz, Rune, Sonne, Christian, Meldgaard, Morten, Dalén, Love, Larson, Greger, Petersen, Bent, Sicheritz-Pontén, Thomas, Bachmann, Lutz, Wiig, Øystein, Marques-Bonet, Tomas, Hansen, Anders J., Gilbert, M. Thomas P.
• Other Authors: European Molecular Biology Organization, Wellcome, Natural Environment Research Council, European Research Council, Carlsbergfondet, The Velux Foundations and Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond, European Union's Innovation Horizon 2020, Rock Foundation of New York, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Institut Nacional d'Educacio Fisica de Catalunya, Generalitat de Catalunya, Obra Social "La Caixa" and Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca and CERCA Programme del Departament d’Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Howard Hughes International Early Career, MINECO/FEDER, UE, Russian Science Foundation, Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, Independent Research Fund Denmark, Natural Environmental Research Council, NHM Oslo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2020
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaz8599; https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1126/science.aaz8599; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.aaz8599

Sled dog arctic adaptations go far back Dogs have been used for sledding in the Arctic as far back as ∼9500 years ago. However, the relationships among the earliest sled dogs, other dog populations, and wolves are unknown. Sinding et al. sequenced an ancient sled dog, 10 modern sled dogs, and an ancient wolf and analyzed their genetic relationships with other modern dogs. This analysis indicates that sled dogs represent an ancient lineage going back at least 9500 years and that wolves bred with the ancestors of sled dogs and precontact American dogs. However, gene flow between sled dogs and wolves likely stopped before ∼9500 years ago. Science , this issue p. 1495