Georgian cattle, sheep, goats: are they of Near-Eastern origins?

Abstract

The main aim of this research was to establish the nucleotide sequence of the highly variable region of the D loop of the mitochondrial DNA of some Georgian domestic animal species (cattle, goat, sheep) as well as their phylogenetic position among the worldwide set of domestic animals. In this study, a total of 5 haplogroups (T – 5; T3 – 7; T1 – 1; T2 – 2; T5 – 2) in 17 Georgian Mountain cattle (GMC), 4 haplogroups (A – 15; A2a1 – 3; A1a – 1; A6 – 3) in 22 Georgian goats and 3 haplogroups (A – 10; B – 16; C -15) in 41 Georgian sheeps (15 Imeretian and 26 Tushetian) were detected. This study represents the first attempt of Genetic study of native Georgian livestocks. The GMC, Georgian (Megrelian) goat, Georgian (Imeretian and Tushetian) sheep mitogenomes were grouped phylogenetically in the haplogroups indicating the closeness to the Near Eastern animals.

Haplotype diversity and mechanisms of evolutionary divergence of the Georgian Mountain Breed of Bos taurus, exhibiting conjointly patterns of admixture populations, introgression, as well as possible parallel versus convergent evolution

“…Haplotype diversity and Population structures of GMB and its genetically most closely related conspeci cs. Most studies that elucidate the evolution, haplotype diversity, and population structures of B. taurus have been based on the highly variable region of the D-loop of mtDNA (Mannen et al 2004 Kunelauri et al 2019). The D-loop represents the most diverse functional region, with some other genetic loci also carrying notable polymorphism across the mitochondrial genome.…”

“…More speci cally, according to the archeozoological and genetic evidence, mainly relying on the results of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analyses, modern cattle are thought to have emerged via just two independent and geographically distinct domestication events of aurochs (Bos primigenius), both of which occurred in southwest Asia: One event is thought to have occurred in the Fertile Crescent, resulting further into modern taurine breeds of B. taurus, while the other event took place in the Indus Valley, leading to the emergence of modern zebuine breeds of its subspecies B. indicus (Loftus et al 1994 While the genetic diversity of many cow breeds from the above groups has been well characterized, there remains a signi cant lack of this information speci cally concerning the Georgian mountain breed (GMB) of B. taurus that is endemic to the Caucasus region. GMB individuals are very small in body size, with the live weight varying from 220 kg to 280 kg for mature cows, and from 270 kg to 370 kg for bulls (Kunelauri et al 2019), demonstrating a unique productivity potential, both for meat and milk as stated elsewhere (Kunelauri et al 2022). The coat color of GMB individuals re ects black, black-and-white, or red-and-white.…”

Evaluation of Maternal Genetic Background of Two Hungarian Autochthonous Sheep Breeds Coming from Different Geographical Directions

“…The haplogroup C had dispersed from the inner core of Asia not only to central Europe. According to the literature, haplotype C can also be found in Caucasus [10] and Georgia [54] as well as in India [55], Asia Minor [20], Northern Anatolia [56]), in the Mediterranean region of Europe [42,57,58] and Africa [59][60][61]. A third route of the European spread of sheep was a direct one from Asia Minor via the Mediterranean Sea.…”

Comparison of mtDNA control region among descendant breeds of the extinct Zaupel sheep revealed haplogroup C and D in Central Europe

“…A 9% incidence of haplogroup C indicates an even more complex maternal background of that breed. This means that ewes have entered Hungary in the past from the closer and farther areas, either from the Asia Minor (Meadows et al, 2007), Caucasus (Tapio et al, 2006), Georgia (Kunelauri et al, 2019) and Caspian See region (Lv et al, 2015) or from Mongolia (Ganbold et al, 2019) and China (Chen et al, 2006;Guo et al, 2005) where, to the best of our knowl- Knowledge of pedigree data is essential for the identification of maternal lineages in mitochondrial genome examinations. For representative sampling, we consider it important to use the founder sampling method because the values of true mitochondrial diversity can be calculated in this way.…”

“…A 9% incidence of haplogroup C indicates an even more complex maternal background of that breed. This means that ewes have entered Hungary in the past from the closer and farther areas, either from the Asia Minor (Meadows et al., 2007 ), Caucasus (Tapio et al., 2006 ), Georgia (Kunelauri et al., 2019 ) and Caspian See region (Lv et al., 2015 ) or from Mongolia (Ganbold et al., 2019 ) and China (Chen et al., 2006 ; Guo et al., 2005 ) where, to the best of our knowledge, haplotype C can be found outside Europe. Additionally, Lv et al., 2015 found significantly higher frequency of haplotype C in fat‐tailed breeds than in short‐tailed breeds, and the highest level of haplotype C variability in the breeds of North China.…”