Discovery of lost diversity of paternal horse lineages using ancient DNA

Sebastian Lippold; Michael Knapp; Tatyana Kuznetsova; Jennifer A. Leonard; Norbert Benecke; Arne Ludwig; Morten Rasmussen; Alan Cooper; Jaco Weinstock; Eske Willerslev; Beth Shapiro; Michael Hofreiter

doi:10.1038/ncomms1447

Discovery of lost diversity of paternal horse lineages using ancient DNA

Sebastian Lippold, Michael Knapp, Tatyana Kuznetsova, Jennifer A. Leonard, Norbert Benecke, Arne Ludwig, Morten Rasmussen, Alan Cooper, Jaco Weinstock, Eske Willerslev, Beth Shapiro, Michael Hofreiter

Biology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Modern domestic horses display abundant genetic diversity within female-inherited mitochondrial DNA, but practically no sequence diversity on the male-inherited Y chromosome. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this discrepancy, but can only be tested through knowledge of the diversity in both the ancestral (pre-domestication) maternal and paternal lineages. As wild horses are practically extinct, ancient DNA studies offer the only means to assess this ancestral diversity. Here we show considerable ancestral diversity in ancient male horses by sequencing 4 kb of Y chromosomal DNA from eight ancient wild horses and one 2,800-year-old domesticated horse. Both ancient and modern domestic horses form a separate branch from the ancient wild horses, with the Przewalski horse at its base. Our methodology establishes the feasibility of re-sequencing long ancient nuclear DNA fragments and demonstrates the power of ancient Y chromosome DNA sequence data to provide insights into the evolutionary history of populations.

Original language	English
Article number	450
Number of pages	6
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1447
Publication status	Published - Aug 2011

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http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v2/n8/full/ncomms1447.html

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title = "Discovery of lost diversity of paternal horse lineages using ancient DNA",

abstract = "Modern domestic horses display abundant genetic diversity within female-inherited mitochondrial DNA, but practically no sequence diversity on the male-inherited Y chromosome. Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this discrepancy, but can only be tested through knowledge of the diversity in both the ancestral (pre-domestication) maternal and paternal lineages. As wild horses are practically extinct, ancient DNA studies offer the only means to assess this ancestral diversity. Here we show considerable ancestral diversity in ancient male horses by sequencing 4 kb of Y chromosomal DNA from eight ancient wild horses and one 2,800-year-old domesticated horse. Both ancient and modern domestic horses form a separate branch from the ancient wild horses, with the Przewalski horse at its base. Our methodology establishes the feasibility of re-sequencing long ancient nuclear DNA fragments and demonstrates the power of ancient Y chromosome DNA sequence data to provide insights into the evolutionary history of populations.",

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AU - Lippold, Sebastian

AU - Knapp, Michael

AU - Kuznetsova, Tatyana

AU - Leonard, Jennifer A.

AU - Benecke, Norbert

AU - Ludwig, Arne

AU - Rasmussen, Morten

AU - Cooper, Alan

AU - Weinstock, Jaco

AU - Willerslev, Eske

AU - Shapiro, Beth

AU - Hofreiter, Michael

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Discovery of lost diversity of paternal horse lineages using ancient DNA

Abstract

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