Evaluating the roles of directed breeding and gene flow in animal domestication

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

For the last 150 y scholars have focused upon the roles of intentional breeding and genetic isolation as fundamental to understanding the process of animal domestication. This analysis of ethnoarchaeological, archaeological, and genetic data suggests that long-term gene flow between wild and domestic stocks was much more common than previously assumed, and that selective breeding of females was largely absent during the early phases of animal domestication. These findings challenge assumptions about severe genetic bottlenecks during domestication, expectations regarding monophyletic origins, and interpretations of multiple domestications. The findings also raise new questions regarding ways in which behavioral and phenotypic domestication traits were developed and maintained.

Related collections

Most cited references 50

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Domestication and early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: Origins, diffusion, and impact.

M. A. Zeder (2008)

The past decade has witnessed a quantum leap in our understanding of the origins, diffusion, and impact of early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin. In large measure these advances are attributable to new methods for documenting domestication in plants and animals. The initial steps toward plant and animal domestication in the Eastern Mediterranean can now be pushed back to the 12th millennium cal B.P. Evidence for herd management and crop cultivation appears at least 1,000 years earlier than the morphological changes traditionally used to document domestication. Different species seem to have been domesticated in different parts of the Fertile Crescent, with genetic analyses detecting multiple domestic lineages for each species. Recent evidence suggests that the expansion of domesticates and agricultural economies across the Mediterranean was accomplished by several waves of seafaring colonists who established coastal farming enclaves around the Mediterranean Basin. This process also involved the adoption of domesticates and domestic technologies by indigenous populations and the local domestication of some endemic species. Human environmental impacts are seen in the complete replacement of endemic island faunas by imported mainland fauna and in today's anthropogenic, but threatened, Mediterranean landscapes where sustainable agricultural practices have helped maintain high biodiversity since the Neolithic.

0 comments Cited 305 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Evidence for two independent domestications of cattle.

R. T. Loftus, D MacHugh, D Bradley … (1994)

The origin and taxonomic status of domesticated cattle are controversial. Zebu and taurine breeds are differentiated primarily by the presence or absence of a hump and have been recognized as separate species (Bos indicus and Bos taurus). However, the most widely held view is that both types of cattle derive from a single domestication event 8000-10,000 years ago. We have examined mtDNA sequences from representatives of six European (taurine) breeds, three Indian (zebu) breeds, and four African (three zebu, one taurine) breeds. Similar levels of average sequence divergence were observed among animals within each of the major continental groups: 0.41% (European), 0.38% (African), and 0.42% (Indian). However, the sequences fell into two very distinct geographic lineages that do not correspond with the taurine-zebu dichotomy: all European and African breeds are in one lineage, and all Indian breeds are in the other. There was little indication of breed clustering within either lineage. Application of a molecular clock suggests that the two major mtDNA clades diverged at least 200,000, and possibly as much as 1 million, years ago. This relatively large divergence is interpreted most simply as evidence for two separate domestication events, presumably of different subspecies of the aurochs, Bos primigenius. The clustering of all African zebu mtDNA sequences within the taurine lineage is attributed to ancestral crossbreeding with the earlier B. taurus inhabitants of the continent.

0 comments Cited 206 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Animal evolution during domestication: the domesticated fox as a model.

Lyudmila Trut, Irina Oskina, Anastasiya Kharlamova (2009)

We review the evolution of domestic animals, emphasizing the effect of the earliest steps of domestication on its course. Using the first domesticated species, the dog (Canis familiaris), for illustration, we describe the evolutionary peculiarities during the historical domestication, such as the high level and wide range of diversity. We suggest that the process of earliest domestication via unconscious and later conscious selection of human-defined behavioral traits may accelerate phenotypic variations. The review is based on the results of a long-term experiment designed to reproduce early mammalian domestication in the silver fox (Vulpes vulpes) selected for tameability or amenability to domestication. We describe changes in behavior, morphology and physiology that appeared in the fox during its selection for tameability, which were similar to those observed in the domestic dog. Based on the data of the fox experiment and survey of relevant data, we discuss the developmental, genetic and possible molecular genetic mechanisms underlying these changes. We ascribe the causative role in evolutionary transformation of domestic animals to the selection for behavior and to the neurospecific regulatory genes it affects.

0 comments Cited 198 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Title: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Abbreviated Title: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

ISSN (Print): 0027-8424

ISSN (Electronic): 1091-6490

Publication date Created: April 29 2014

Publication date (Electronic): April 21 2014

Publication date (Print): April 29 2014

Volume: 111

Issue: 17

Pages: 6153-6158

Article

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1312984110

PMC ID: 4035985

PubMed ID: 24753599

SO-VID: e416e046-490e-4be4-8319-65ebb35c2d5f

History

Data availability:

Comments

Comment on this article

scite_

Cited by 48

See all cited by

Most referenced authors 713

See all reference authors

- Version 1

Evaluating the roles of directed breeding and gene flow in animal domestication

Read this article at

Abstract

Related collections

Animal Welfare

Most cited references 50

Domestication and early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: Origins, diffusion, and impact.

Evidence for two independent domestications of cattle.

Animal evolution during domestication: the domesticated fox as a model.

Author and article information

Journal

Article

History

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 1,650

Cited by 48

Most referenced authors 713