25 research outputs found
Use of domesticated pigs by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in northwestern Europe
Acknowledgements We thank the Archaeological State Museum Schleswig-Holstein, the Archaeological State Offices of Brandenburg, Lower Saxony and Saxony and the following individuals who provided sample material: Betty Arndt, Jo¨rg Ewersen, Frederick Feulner, Susanne Hanik, Ru¨diger Krause, Jochen Reinhard, Uwe Reuter, Karl-Heinz Ro¨hrig, Maguerita Scha¨fer, Jo¨rg Schibler, Reinhold Schoon, Regina Smolnik, Thomas Terberger and Ingrid Ulbricht. We are grateful to Ulrich Schmo¨lcke, Michael Forster, Peter Forster and Aikaterini Glykou for their support and comments on the manuscript. We also thank many institutions and individuals that provided sample material and access to collections, especially the curators of the Museum fu¨r Naturkunde, Berlin; Muse´um National d0 Histoire Naturelle, Paris; Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C.; Zoologische Staatssammlung, Mu¨nchen; Museum fu¨r Haustierkunde, Halle; the American Museum of Natural History, New-York. This work was funded by the Graduate School ‘Human Development in Landscapes’ at Kiel University (CAU) and supported by NERC project Grant NE/F003382/1. Radiocarbon dating was carried out at the Leibniz Laboratory, CAU. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Mitochondrial simple sequenze repeats and 12s – rRNA gene reveal two distinct lineages of Crocidura russula (Mammalia, Sorcidae)
A short segment (135 bp) of the control region and a partial
sequence (394 bp) of the 12S-rRNA gene in the mitochondrial
DNA of Crocidura russula were analyzed in order to test a
previous hypothesis regarding the presence of a gene flow
disruption in northern Africa. This breakpoint would have
separated northeast-African C. russula populations from
the European (plus the northwest-African) populations. The
analysis was carried out on specimens from Tunisia (C. r. cf
agilis), Sardinia (C. r. ichnusae), and Pantelleria (C. r.
cossyrensis), and on C. r. russula from Spain and Belgium.
Two C. russula lineages were identified; they both shared R2
tandem repeated motifs of the same length (12 bp), but not the
same primary structure. These simple sequence repeats were
present in 12–23 copies in the right domain of the control
region. Within the northeast-African populations, a polymorphism
of repeat variants, not yet found in Europe, was recorded.
A neighbor-join tree, which was built by sequences of the conserved 12S-rRNA gene, separated the two sister groups; it
permitted us to date a divergence time of 0.5Myr. Our data
discriminated two different mitochondrial lineages in accordance
with the previous morphological and karyological data.
Ecoclimatic barriers formed during the Middle Pleistocene
broke the range of ancestral species in the Eastern Algeria
(Kabile Mountains), leading to two genetically separate and
modern lineages. The northeast-African lineage can today be
located in Tunisia, Pantelleria, and Sardinia. The northwest-
African lineage (Morocco and West Algeria), reaching Spain
by anthropogenic introduction, spread over north Europe in
modern times. The Palaearctic C. russula species is monophyletic,
but a taxonomical revision (ie, to provide a full species
rank for the northeast taxa and to put in synonymy some
insular taxa) is required
The Local Origin of the Tibetan Pig and Additional Insights into the Origin of Asian Pigs
BACKGROUND: The domestic pig currently indigenous to the Tibetan highlands is supposed to have been introduced during a continuous period of colonization by the ancestors of modern Tibetans. However, there is no direct genetic evidence of either the local origin or exotic migration of the Tibetan pig. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We analyzed mtDNA hypervariable segment I (HVI) variation of 218 individuals from seven Tibetan pig populations and 1,737 reported mtDNA sequences from domestic pigs and wild boars across Asia. The Bayesian consensus tree revealed a main haplogroup M and twelve minor haplogroups, which suggested a large number of small scale in situ domestication episodes. In particular, haplogroups D1 and D6 represented two highly divergent lineages in the Tibetan highlands and Island Southeastern Asia, respectively. Network analysis of haplogroup M further revealed one main subhaplogroup M1 and two minor subhaplogroups M2 and M3. Intriguingly, M2 was mainly distributed in Southeastern Asia, suggesting for a local origin. Similar with haplogroup D6, M3 was mainly restricted in Island Southeastern Asia. This pattern suggested that Island Southeastern Asia, but not Southeastern Asia, might be the center of domestication of the so-called Pacific clade (M3 and D6 here) described in previous studies. Diversity gradient analysis of major subhaplogroup M1 suggested three local origins in Southeastern Asia, the middle and downstream regions of the Yangtze River, and the Tibetan highlands, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We identified two new origin centers for domestic pigs in the Tibetan highlands and in the Island Southeastern Asian region
Introgression and isolation contributed to the development of Hungarian Mangalica pigs from a particular European ancient bloodline
Strain, clone and species: comments on three basic concepts of bacteriology
Different aspects of the terms strain, clone and species are discussed. The term strain is commonly used to denote a pure culture - here called 'the strain in the taxonomic sense' - but does also refer to a natural concept closely related to the clone. The term clone on the other hand is used both in a general and in a more restricted sense, the latter indicating a low degree of genetic exchange, The important distinction between the definition of a species and the criteria for a species is emphasised and the main kinds of criteria are considered
Subordinal artiodactyl relationships in the light of phylogenetic analysis of 12 mitochondrial protein-coding genes
Extant artiodactyls (even-toed hoofed mammals) are traditionally divided into three main lineages: Suiformes (pigs, peccaries and hippopotamuses), Tylopoda (camels and llamas) and Ruminantia (bovids, deer, tragulids and giraffes). Recent molecular studies have not supported a close relationship between pigs and hippopotamuses, however, instead grouping hippopotamuses with Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises). In this study we have sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of a tylopod - the alpaca (Lama pacos), the only artiodactyl suborder not previously represented by a complete mitochondrial sequence. This sequence was included in phylogenetic analyses together with the complete mitochondrial protein-coding sequences of other artiodactyls plus two cetaceans. Despite the length of the data set, the relationship between Suina (Suiformes sine Hippopotamidae), Tylopoda and Ruminantia/Hippopotamidae/Cetacea could not be fully resolved, however, a basal position of the alpaca (Tylopoda) relative to the other artiodactyls/cetaceans was unsupported