Abstract
We describe here a broad diversity in phenotype among dogs in southern China’s rural areas, previously relatively unknown outside of China. These dogs display a much broader spectrum of diversity than is observed for the Indian Pariah Dog and the Australian Dingo, which are of a more uniform type and popularly thought to be typical for South Asian dogs and to represent the primitive morphology of the earliest domestic dogs. We show here that the village dog population of southern China harbors a broad diversity of morphological features, for color, body structure and size, coat texture, ear, and tail set, that are otherwise typically associated with the wide variety of Western dog breeds and assumed to be the result of intense selective breeding. The diversity of southern China’s dogs is cast in the light of mtDNA and Y-chromosome DNA studies showing that the genetic diversity is distinctly higher in southern East Asia than in the rest of the world, indicating that this was the geographical origins of today’s dog. These data suggest that the diverse morphologies of European dogs may have been formed from genetic “building blocks" still present in the dog population of rural southern China.
Highlights
Recent publications have shown that dogs in southern East Asia (China south of the Yangtze River and southeast Asia) harbor practically the full genetic diversity for mitochondrial DNA [1, 2] as well as Y-chromosomal DNA [3], while all other indigenous dog populations across the world harbor just a subset of the gene pool found in southern East Asia (Figure 1)
The genetic diversity for these markers is distinctly higher for dogs in southern East Asia than in all other dog populations across the world
E phenotypes of southern China’s dogs represent a wide diversity, which adds to the already diverse Chinese breeds recognized by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale (FCI). eir variety is shown as follows: (1) in color—solid white, black, pale cream, fawn with or without black mask, brindle, black and tan, and particolored (Figure 4); (2) in structure and size—from short legged to long legged, small-to-medium-sized to tall and powerful (Figure 5); (3) in coat texture—smooth coated, wire haired, curly and long haired (Figure 6); (4) in ear set—prick ears, half-erect ears, and lop ears (Figure 6); (5) in tail set—curled and carried high, short, straight, carried low or high (Figure 7)
Summary
Recent publications have shown that dogs in southern East Asia (China south of the Yangtze River and southeast Asia) harbor practically the full genetic diversity for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) [1, 2] as well as Y-chromosomal DNA [3], while all other indigenous dog populations across the world harbor just a subset of the gene pool found in southern East Asia (Figure 1). If the dogs in southern East Asia would generally have the limited morphological diversity of Dingoes and Pariah dogs, it may seem surprising that the genetic basis for the immense morphological variation found among Western dog breeds would have originated from southern Eastern Asia, as indicated by mtDNA and Ychromosomal DNA data [1,2,3]. A closer look at the indigenous dogs in southern China reveals that they display a broader spectrum of phenotypes than is generally known in the West, and some form distinct populations not recognized by Western Canine Societies— some are allowed in Chinese dog shows (such as the Xiasi Quan, Figure 3). Because so little is known in the West about the variety of phenotypes these dogs display, we present here a photographic study of the diversity in dogs of this region
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