Abstract
Over thousands of years humans changed the genetic and phenotypic composition of several organisms and in the process transformed wild species into domesticated forms. From this close association, domestic animals emerged as important models in biomedical and fundamental research, in addition to their intrinsic economical and cultural value. The domestic rabbit is no exception but few studies have investigated the impact of domestication on its genetic variability. In order to study patterns of genetic structure in domestic rabbits and to quantify the genetic diversity lost with the domestication process, we genotyped 45 microsatellites for 471 individuals belonging to 16 breeds and 13 wild localities. We found that both the initial domestication and the subsequent process of breed formation, when averaged across breeds, culminated in losses of ~20% of genetic diversity present in the ancestral wild population and domestic rabbits as a whole, respectively. Despite the short time elapsed since breed diversification we uncovered a well-defined structure in domestic rabbits where the FST between breeds was 22%. However, we failed to detect deeper levels of structure, probably consequence of a recent and single geographic origin of domestication together with a non-bifurcating process of breed formation, which were often derived from crosses between two or more breeds. Finally, we found evidence for intrabreed stratification that is associated with demographic and selective causes such as formation of strains, colour morphs within the same breed, or country/breeder of origin. These additional layers of population structure within breeds should be taken into account in future mapping studies.
Highlights
The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is the sole progenitor of domestic rabbits and both the wild and domestic forms occur worldwide.Its geographic origin can be traced back to Iberian Peninsula [1,2], where two subspecies coexist: O. c. cuniculus, which is distributed in the north-eastern portion of the Iberian Peninsula, and O. c. algirus, on the south-western part [3]
Similar losses of genetic diversity occurring at early domestication and breed formation During most of its existence, the European rabbit was restricted to the Iberian Peninsula
Our data suggest that domestic rabbits form a homogenous group and are a subset of the genetic diversity found in French wild populations, which is in agreement with historical records [8,9,10] and previous genetic studies indicating a single origin of domestication in this region [7,14,15]
Summary
The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is the sole progenitor of domestic rabbits and both the wild and domestic forms occur worldwide.Its geographic origin can be traced back to Iberian Peninsula [1,2], where two subspecies coexist: O. c. cuniculus, which is distributed in the north-eastern portion of the Iberian Peninsula, and O. c. algirus, on the south-western part [3]. Some records indicate that the initial steps took place in the Iberian Peninsula in the first century BC, where Romans raised rabbits for meat and fur in large fenced colonies This practice is most likely to have occurred without selective breeding [6,8]. There is abundant historical information indicating that the true domestication process, including taming and selective breeding, occurred in French Monasteries within the last 1,500 years This was inadvertently triggered by the Pope Gregory I, when in 600 AD decreed that Laurices, a delicacy consisting of unborn or newly born rabbits, were not considered meat and suitable for eating during Lent and other fasts [8,9,10]. French monks that lived in seclusion and needed obtainable meat supplies, found in this permission a motivation to initiate the selective breeding of rabbits
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