Modern Northern Domestic Horses Carry Mitochondrial DNA Similar to Przewalski\u2019s Horse

Laura Kvist,Markku Niskanen

doi:10.1007/s10914-020-09517-6

Abstract

Several recent studies have suggested past gene flow between the Przewalski’s horse and modern domestic horse and questioned the wild origin of the Przewalski’s horse. Mitochondrial DNA has placed representatives of the Przewalski’s horse into three among the eighteen haplogroups detected from the modern horse. Of these, two haplogroups have so far been found exclusively in the Przewalski’s horse, while the one shared with the domestic horse includes captive individuals that have uncertain pedigrees. We recently found five domestic horse individuals of North European horse breeds to carry a mitochondrial haplogroup that was previously confined only to the Przewalski’s horse. These individuals were sequenced for 6039 bp of mitochondrial DNA and used, together with domestic and Przewalski’s horse sequences presenting all horse haplogroups, to examine the phylogenetic relationships and to date the divergence time between Przewalski’s and domestic horse clusters within this haplogroup. The divergence was dated to have likely occurred about 13,300–11,400 years ago, which coincides with the time of the Younger Dryas.

Highlights

A recent study of the relationship of Przewalski’s horse (Equus przewalskii) genomes with ancient and modern domestic horse (Equus caballus) genomes suggested that Przewalski’s horses are feral descendants of domesticated horses of the Botai culture (c. 5700–5100 years ago)
We recently found evidence of four Finnhorse and one Latvian horse (Latvijas škirne) individuals out of 991 sequenced horses to carry mitochondrial haplogroup F (Kvist et al 2019), the haplogroup that was previously confined only to Przewalski’s horse
The four Finnhorses belonging to haplogroup F were three geldings and one mare, which derived from two maternal lineages called Hilu 656PK and Elle 52810

Summary

Introduction

A recent study of the relationship of Przewalski’s horse (Equus przewalskii) genomes with ancient and modern domestic horse (Equus caballus) genomes suggested that Przewalski’s horses are feral descendants of domesticated horses of the Botai culture (c. 5700–5100 years ago (ya)). The existence of a shared mitochondrial haplogroup and close relatedness of the other Przewalski’s horse specific haplogroups with the modern domestic horse haplogroups further indicates past gene flow between these two. A red chestnut mare, was born in 1911 and was accepted into the Finnhorse studbook in 1915 in Kitee, eastern Finland. She left two offspring and this lineage has led to six mares born after year 2000. Elle was accepted into the Finnhorse studbook in 1944 in Kauhajoki, western Finland She left four offspring, with 31 mares born after year 2000 from this lineage (Heppa-järjestelmä 2019; Sukuposti 2019). Based on time to MRCA, the divergence between Finnhorses and the Latvian Horse lineage from Przewalski lineage occurred 13,300 ya, and based on divergence between haplogroups F and G, it occurred 11,400 ya (Fig. 1)

Discussion

Findings

99 JN398450 Akhal-Teke