Microsatellite diversity suggests different histories for Mediterranean and Northern European cattle populations

Abstract

Based on archaeological evidence, the spread of agropastoralism across Europe followed two main paths: the Danubian route, along which Neolithic farmers expanded north across the central European plains; and the Mediterranean route, where migration occurred along the coast of the Mediterranean sea. Here we examine 20 cattle breeds from the continent and assess the genetic diversity levels and relationships among the breeds using 19 microsatellite markers. Additionally, we show evidence that concords with two distinct cattle migrations from the Near East, and also demonstrate that Mediterranean cattle breeds may have had more recent input from both the Near East and Africa.

The origin of European cattle: Evidence from modern and ancient DNA

“…The evidence for this hypothesis can be summarized as follows: (i) none of the British aurochs sequences typed so far was found in modern cattle, and the divergence between the two distinct clades (B. taurus and B. primigenius) predates by several thousand years the domestication event; (ii) European cattle belong almost exclusively to a single group of mtDNA sequences, haplogroup T3, which represents a subset of the variation observed in the Near East (where four major haplogroups, T, T1, T2, and T3, are present); and (iii) the shape and the age of the European network of sequences is compatible with a demographic expansion from a small population after domestication. Nuclear markers also seem to show a higher variability in the Near East than in other regions (13,14), thus supporting the conclusions based on mitochondrial data.…”

“…In fact, (i) this hypothesis is based on limited DNA sampling of modern breeds from Southern Europe and Northern Africa and only six aurochsen from a single geographically restricted area in Northern Europe; (ii) the aurochs went extinct in Europe no more than 400 years ago (2,18) and, hence, the cattle and local wild aurochsen coexisted for millennia during which interbreeding was possible; (iii) recently, a 4,000-year-old molar from Northern Spain, morphologically attributed to a cattle, was proved to have a mtDNA sequence of the British aurochs type (17), and the tooth could have belonged to a hunted aurochs morphologically misattributed to a cattle, but local domestication or cattle-aurochs hybridization cannot be excluded; (iv) the North African influence, at least on Iberian breeds, is well documented (14,17,19,20), even if it is usually attributed to occasional historical (the Moorish occupation) or Bronze Age (exchanges via the Straits of Gibraltar) events; (v) archeological data suggest that farmers spread from the Near East to northwestern Europe by following continental routes but also westward through the Mediterranean Sea by following maritime routes, and, thus, a genetic influence from North African cattle is possible (21-23); finally, (vi) two recent analyses, based on the mtDNA variation observed in the pig (24), and the MHC variation expected when different domestication scenario are simulated for different mammals (25), seems to indicate that simple well accepted hypotheses regarding livestock domestication might be wrong.…”

Maternal and paternal genealogy of Eurasian taurine cattle (Bos taurus)

“…Similar kinds of longhorn and grey cattle are found in southeast and southern Europe, such as Maremmana, Hungarian Grey and Modicana, collectively termed as Podolian breeds (Felius, 1995). Studies of nuclear genetic markers have suggested that the genetic influence from zebu is evident in breeds of the Podolian group (Pieragostini et al, 2000;Cymbron et al, 2005). The detected genetic influence from zebu cattle in the Podolian cattle appears to originate, at least partly, from ancient Steppe cattle.…”

“…On the other hand, the map displaying genetic affinities between the populations does not reveal an extensive male-mediated introgres-sion in Turkish Grey, East Anatolian Red, South Anatolian Red, Damascus, Anatolian Black and Iraqi breeds from West European breeds (Figure 4b). In addition, a previous autosomal microsatellite study (Cymbron et al, 2005) showed genetic distinctiveness between Near Eastern and European cattle breeds, excluding the possibility of a recent admixture effect.…”

Relative breed contributions to neutral genetic diversity of a comprehensive representation of Iberian native cattle

“…Both countries are characterised by a large number of local cattle breeds, most of which are considered threatened genetic resources. Although many of the breeds included in this study have been previously characterised genetically to some extent together with other breeds (Martín-Burriel et al, 1999;Cañ on et al, 2001;Mateus et al, 2004;Cymbron et al, 2005;Martín-Burriel et al, 2007;Ginja et al, 2010a), a comprehensive analysis of the genetic diversity present in the Iberian Peninsula and a source of important bovine genetic resources has never been made.…”