Unlocking the origins and biology of domestic animals using ancient DNA and paleogenomics

Gillian P Mchugo,Michael J Dover,David E Machugh

doi:10.1186/s12915-019-0724-7

Abstract

Animal domestication has fascinated biologists since Charles Darwin first drew the parallel between evolution via natural selection and human-mediated breeding of livestock and companion animals. In this review we show how studies of ancient DNA from domestic animals and their wild progenitors and congeners have shed new light on the genetic origins of domesticates, and on the process of domestication itself. High-resolution paleogenomic data sets now provide unprecedented opportunities to explore the development of animal agriculture across the world. In addition, functional population genomics studies of domestic and wild animals can deliver comparative information useful for understanding recent human evolution.

Highlights

Animal domestication has fascinated biologists since Charles Darwin first drew the parallel between evolution via natural selection and human-mediated breeding of livestock and companion animals
Wholesale domestication of plants and animals by humans, which began with the wolf (Canis lupus) at least 15 thousand years ago [8–11], was likely triggered by significant environmental and climatic change that accompanied the global transition from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) peak approximately 21 kya to the current Holocene interglacial period [12]
The demographic pressure of increasing human populations has been proposed as a causal factor for domestication, resulting in the gradual intensification of relationships between humans and animals over time and culminating in the substantial biological modifications observed in domesticates [6, 18]

Summary

Introduction

Animal domestication has fascinated biologists since Charles Darwin first drew the parallel between evolution via natural selection and human-mediated breeding of livestock and companion animals. During the last three decades, studies encompassing molecular population genetics, ancient DNA (aDNA), population genomics and, more recently, paleogenomics, have provided strong support for Darwin’s contention that domestic animal populations and domestication from wild progenitors represent fantastic models for understanding evolutionary processes at a broader level and over longer timescales [32–37].

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