Abstract
Dogs were present in pre-Columbian America, presumably brought by early human migrants from Asia. Studies of free-ranging village/street dogs have indicated almost total replacement of these original dogs by European dogs, but the extent to which Arctic, North and South American breeds are descendants of the original population remains to be assessed. Using a comprehensive phylogeographic analysis, we traced the origin of the mitochondrial DNA lineages for Inuit, Eskimo and Greenland dogs, Alaskan Malamute, Chihuahua, xoloitzcuintli and perro sín pelo del Peru, by comparing to extensive samples of East Asian (n = 984) and European dogs (n = 639), and previously published pre-Columbian sequences. Evidence for a pre-Columbian origin was found for all these breeds, except Alaskan Malamute for which results were ambigous. No European influence was indicated for the Arctic breeds Inuit, Eskimo and Greenland dog, and North/South American breeds had at most 30% European female lineages, suggesting marginal replacement by European dogs. Genetic continuity through time was shown by the sharing of a unique haplotype between the Mexican breed Chihuahua and ancient Mexican samples. We also analysed free-ranging dogs, confirming limited pre-Columbian ancestry overall, but also identifying pockets of remaining populations with high proportion of indigenous ancestry, and we provide the first DNA-based evidence that the Carolina dog, a free-ranging population in the USA, may have an ancient Asian origin.
Highlights
The dog is well established as the most ancient domestic animal and is unique as the only domesticate present in human societies on every continent in ancient times [1]
All breeds of presumed indigenous American origin carried haplotypes absent in a comprehensive sample of European dogs, and our data indicates that only 30% or less of the female lineages in indigenous American breeds have a European origin
The data once more confirmed that American dogs have a common origin with Old World dogs, since no distinct haplogroups unique to American dogs were found and all haplotypes fell into the previously described universal phylogenetic clades A, B and C
Summary
The dog is well established as the most ancient domestic animal and is unique as the only domesticate present in human societies on every continent in ancient times [1]. The results were based on comparisons with a restricted source of information, that is, with the haplotypes found among 19 ancient American dog samples analysed in one previous study [8] Another approach, possibly allowing for a more comprehensive picture of the geographical ancestry of mtDNA lineages among American dogs, is to compare extant American dogs with European and East Asian dogs, assuming that today’s populations are good approximations for the ancient ones. We identified the sharing of haplotypes and haplogroups among these regions and between ancient and modern samples Through this analysis, we traced the maternal ancestry of the modern New World dog populations, assessing for the first time the extent to which American dog breeds descend from the original pre-Columbian population, and reanalysing the ancestry of free-ranging populations in greater phylogeographical detail.
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