Abstract
Sheep are thought to have been one of the first livestock to be domesticated in the Near East, thus playing an important role in human history. The current whole mitochondrial genome phylogeny for the genus Ovis is based on: the five main domestic haplogroups occurring among sheep (O. aries), along with molecular data from two wild European mouflons, three urials, and one argali. With the aim to shed some further light on the phylogenetic relationship within this genus, the first complete mitochondrial genome sequence of a Cypriot mouflon (O. gmelini ophion) is here reported. Phylogenetic analyses were performed using a dataset of whole Ovis mitogenomes as well as D-loop sequences. The concatenated sequence of 28 mitochondrial genes of one Cypriot mouflon, and the D-loop sequence of three Cypriot mouflons were compared to sequences obtained from samples representatives of the five domestic sheep haplogroups along with samples of the extant wild and feral sheep. The sample included also individuals from the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia and Corsica hosting remnants of the first wave of domestication that likely went then back to feral life. The divergence time between branches in the phylogenetic tree has been calculated using seven different calibration points by means of Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood inferences. Results suggest that urial (O. vignei) and argali (O. ammon) diverged from domestic sheep about 0.89 and 1.11 million years ago (MYA), respectively; and dates the earliest radiation of domestic sheep common ancestor at around 0.3 MYA. Additionally, our data suggest that the rise of the modern sheep haplogroups happened in the span of time between six and 32 thousand years ago (KYA). A close phylogenetic relationship between the Cypriot and the Anatolian mouflon carrying the X haplotype was detected. The genetic distance between this group and the other ovine haplogroups supports the hypothesis that it may be a new haplogroup never described before. Furthermore, the updated phylogenetic tree presented in this study determines a finer classification of ovine species and may help to classify more accurately new mitogenomes within the established haplogroups so far identified.
Highlights
The knowledge of species origin has always been an essential element for informed genetic diversity conservation
Molecular investigations based on the analysis of a partial sequence of the mitochondrial Dloop region [12] supported the occurrence of a new ovine haplotype, never observed before among domestic sheep; this was detected in Anatolian mouflons whose gene pool is composed of two different mtDNA haplotypes, one belonging to HPG A and one closely related to HPGs C and E, named by the authors as haplotype X
The mtDNA molecule of O. g. ophion was 16,620 bp long, very similar in length to what was found for the domestic sheep (16,616 bp)
Summary
The knowledge of species origin has always been an essential element for informed genetic diversity conservation. According to Vigne [1], archaeozoological findings suggest that the earliest detected domestications occurred in the Near East during the 11th millennium before present (BP). In such a context, sheep and goats were the first livestock to be domesticated near the region known as Fertile Crescent [2]. Sheep and goats were the first livestock to be domesticated near the region known as Fertile Crescent [2] In this area, the domestication of the Asian mouflon (Ovis gmelini) probably gave rise to the domestic sheep (O. aries) [1, 3,4,5,6,7], the contribution of other wild species such as urial (O. vignei), argali (O. ammon) and European mouflon Molecular investigations based on the analysis of a partial sequence of the mitochondrial Dloop region [12] supported the occurrence of a new ovine haplotype, never observed before among domestic sheep; this was detected in Anatolian mouflons whose gene pool is composed of two different mtDNA haplotypes, one belonging to HPG A and one closely related to HPGs C and E, named by the authors as haplotype X
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