Grey wolf genomic history reveals a dual ancestry of dogs. ...

• Main Authors: Bergström, Anders, Stanton, David W G, Taron, Ulrike H, Frantz, Laurent, Sinding, Mikkel-Holger S, Ersmark, Erik, Pfrengle, Saskia, Cassatt-Johnstone, Molly, Lebrasseur, Ophélie, Girdland-Flink, Linus, Fernandes, Daniel M, Ollivier, Morgane, Speidel, Leo, Gopalakrishnan, Shyam, Westbury, Michael V, Ramos-Madrigal, Jazmin, Feuerborn, Tatiana R, Reiter, Ella, Gretzinger, Joscha, Münzel, Susanne C, Swali, Pooja, Conard, Nicholas J, Carøe, Christian, Haile, James, Linderholm, Anna, Androsov, Semyon, Barnes, Ian, Baumann, Chris, Benecke, Norbert, Bocherens, Hervé, Brace, Selina, Carden, Ruth F, Drucker, Dorothée G, Fedorov, Sergey, Gasparik, Mihály, Germonpré, Mietje, Grigoriev, Semyon, Groves, Pam, Hertwig, Stefan T, Ivanova, Varvara V, Janssens, Luc, Jennings, Richard P, Kasparov, Aleksei K, Kirillova, Irina V, Kurmaniyazov, Islam, Kuzmin, Yaroslav V, Kosintsev, Pavel A, Lázničková-Galetová, Martina, Leduc, Charlotte, Nikolskiy, Pavel
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Springer Nature 2022
• Subjects: 570 Life sciences; biology; Canis lupus; Siberia
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.48350/171035; https://boris.unibe.ch/171035/

The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was the first species to give rise to a domestic population, and they remained widespread throughout the last Ice Age when many other large mammal species went extinct. Little is known, however, about the history and possible extinction of past wolf populations or when and where the wolf progenitors of the present-day dog lineage (Canis familiaris) lived1-8. Here we analysed 72 ancient wolf genomes spanning the last 100,000 years from Europe, Siberia and North America. We found that wolf populations were highly connected throughout the Late Pleistocene, with levels of differentiation an order of magnitude lower than they are today. This population connectivity allowed us to detect natural selection across the time series, including rapid fixation of mutations in the gene IFT88 40,000-30,000 years ago. We show that dogs are overall more closely related to ancient wolves from eastern Eurasia than to those from western Eurasia, suggesting a domestication process in the east. However, ...