Prehistoric genomes reveal the genetic foundation and cost of horse domestication.

• Main Authors: Schubert, M, Jónsson, H, Chang, D, Der Sarkissian, C, Ermini, L, Ginolhac, A, Albrechtsen, A, Dupanloup, I, Foucal, A, Petersen, B, Fumagalli, M, Raghavan, M, Seguin-Orlando, A, Korneliussen, TS, Velazquez, AM, Stenderup, J, Hoover, CA, Rubin, CJ, Alfarhan, AH, Alquraishi, SA, Al-Rasheid, KA, MacHugh, DE, Kalbfleisch, T, MacLeod, JN, Rubin, EM, Sicheritz-Ponten, T, Andersson, L, Hofreiter, M, Marques-Bonet, T, Gilbert, MT, Nielsen, R, Excoffier, L, Willerslev, E, Shapiro, B, Orlando, L
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Przewalski’s horse; ancient DNA; cost of domestication; horse domestication; positive selection; Animals; Domestic; Cardiovascular System; Dogs; Evolution; Molecular; Genome; Hindlimb; Horses; Humans; Inbreeding; Russia; Kya; Taymyr
• Online Access: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1461692/

The domestication of the horse ∼ 5.5 kya and the emergence of mounted riding, chariotry, and cavalry dramatically transformed human civilization. However, the genetics underlying horse domestication are difficult to reconstruct, given the near extinction of wild horses. We therefore sequenced two an...