The ancient Yakuts: a population genetic enigma

Keyser, Christine; Hollard, Clémence; Gonzalez, Angéla; Fausser, Jean-Luc; Rivals, Éric; Alexeev, Anatoly; Ribéron, Alexandre; Crubézy, Éric; Ludes, Bertrand

doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0385

Cited by 33 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(43 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The most commonly accepted hypothesis proposes that they descend from a founding population brought by the Yakut people (2,4). Some authors have suggested that at the time of their arrival, founding horses admixed with local populations descending from wild Late Pleistocene horses (8)(9)(10).…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite such extreme conditions, a group of Turkic-speaking horse-riders, likely originating from the AltaiSayan and/or Baïkal area, migrated into this region between the 13th and 15th centuries, pressed by the expansion of Mongolic tribes (2)(3)(4). The Yakut people successfully developed a unique economy based on horse and cattle breeding, with Yakutian horses mostly exploited as sources of meat and milk.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Tracking the origins of Yakutian horses and the genetic basis for their fast adaptation to subarctic environments

Librado

Sarkissian

Ermini

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

144

120

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Yakutia, Sakha Republic, in the Siberian Far East, represents one of the coldest places on Earth, with winter record temperatures dropping below −70°C. Nevertheless, Yakutian horses survive all year round in the open air due to striking phenotypic adaptations, including compact body conformations, extremely hairy winter coats, and acute seasonal differences in metabolic activities. The evolutionary origins of Yakutian horses and the genetic basis of their adaptations remain, however, contentious. Here, we present the complete genomes of nine present-day Yakutian horses and two ancient specimens dating from the early 19th century and ∼5,200 y ago. By comparing these genomes with the genomes of two Late Pleistocene, 27 domesticated, and three wild Przewalski's horses, we find that contemporary Yakutian horses do not descend from the native horses that populated the region until the mid-Holocene, but were most likely introduced following the migration of the Yakut people a few centuries ago. Thus, they represent one of the fastest cases of adaptation to the extreme temperatures of the Arctic. We find cisregulatory mutations to have contributed more than nonsynonymous changes to their adaptation, likely due to the comparatively limited standing variation within gene bodies at the time the population was founded. Genes involved in hair development, body size, and metabolic and hormone signaling pathways represent an essential part of the Yakutian horse adaptive genetic toolkit. Finally, we find evidence for convergent evolution with native human populations and woolly mammoths, suggesting that only a few evolutionary strategies are compatible with survival in extremely cold environments. The Yakutian horse is the most northerly distributed horse on the planet and certainly the most resistant to cold. In contrast to SignificanceYakutia is among the coldest regions in the Northern Hemisphere, showing ∼40% of its territory above the Arctic Circle. Native horses are particularly adapted to this environment, with body sizes and thick winter coats minimizing heat loss. We sequenced complete genomes of two ancient and nine present-day Yakutian horses to elucidate their evolutionary origins. We find that the contemporary population descends from domestic livestock, likely brought by early horse-riders who settled in the region a few centuries ago. The metabolic, anatomical, and physiological adaptations of these horses therefore emerged on very short evolutionary time scales. We show the relative importance of regulatory changes in the adaptive process and identify genes independently selected in cold-adapted human populations and woolly mammoths.

show abstract

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracking the origins of Yakutian horses and the genetic basis for their fast adaptation to subarctic environments

Librado

Sarkissian

Ermini

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

144

120

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It was shown by studies of Y-chromosomal short tandem repeats (Y-chromosomal STR) that the Yakuts are characterized by low genetic diversity in Y-chromosomal loci. This fact is considered to be caused by strong reduction in a male population size of Yakuts and existence population bottleneck during their migration in the historical past [47,54,55]. In this scenario it is possible that the Yakut population is characterized by increased incidence any genetic variants associated with impaired spermoigenesis due to founder effect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic Differences in Spermatozoa Morphological Defects Diversity Among Men From Eastern Siberia, Russia

Клещев

Осадчук

Шантанова

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background.Sperm morphology defects are considered to indicate several spermiogenesis anomalies, resulting in decreased men fertility, causing not only poor sperm morphology but also increased DNA fragmentation, chromatin condensation defects, increased oxidative stress. Consequently, detailed assessment of sperm morphological abnormalities in additional to counting percentage of sperm with normal morphology may be useful for andrologists and reproductive biologists. However, a little attention is paid to studying a regional and especially ethnic variability in the incidence of the sperm morphology defects. The aim of this research was to estimate ethnic variability in percentages of the sperm morphology abnormalities in men from general population living in the Siberian region of the Russian Federation.Methods.Male volunteers of Buryat (n=195), Yakut (n=130), and Slavic (n=89) ethnicity from the general population from Ulan-Ude and Yakutsk at least 5 years were enrolled in the study. Percentages of sperm morphological defects (according to the classification provided by the WHO laboratory manual, 2010) are counted after staining native ejaculate smears by Diff-Quick kits. Results.Among sperm defect, amorphous (62.25±12.18%), elongated (10.61±8.62%), pyriform(8.61±9.17%), and vacuolated heads (10.31±6.77%), abnormal acrosome (20.43±12.67%), asymmetrical insertion neck (18.33±6,43%), thick midpiece (6.21±3,41%), bent head (5.94±4,02%) and coiled tail (10.8±6.79%) were most frequent. In comparison with Buryats, Slavs and Yakuts were characterized by the decreased proportion sperm with normal morphology, the increased proportion of pyriform, elongated heads, abnormal acrosome, asymmertical tail insertion, excessive residual cytoplasm and increased teratozoospermia index (TZI). It was shown that impared progressive sperm motility and concentration associated with decreased percentage of sperm with normal morphology and increased proportion most of sperm morphology defects and TZI. However, increasing TZI in men with oligoastenozoospermia compared to men with astenozoospermia was revealed for Buryats only, suggesting ethnic features in the relationships between sperm morphology and concentration.Conclusion.The present study showed significant coordinated ethnic variability in the percentages of several sperm morphological defects in men from the general population located in Eastern Siberia. Damaged spermiogenesis processes underlying sperm head elongation and tail formation is considered to be significant contributors to geographical and ethnic variability of sperm morphology in men from the studied populations.

show abstract

“…Green cryo-fodder is the basis of nutrition for many animals, including the Yakutian horses. This breed is considered a direct successor and descendant of the horses brought from the Baikal region in the 13th-15th centuries AD [9][10][11]. The origin of the horses was confirmed by molecular genetic methods [12][13][14][15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fatty Acid Content and Composition of the Yakutian Horses and Their Main Food Source: Living in Extreme Winter Conditions

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

For the first time, seasonal changes in the content of total lipids (TLs) and phospholipids (PLs) were studied in fodder plants growing in Central Yakutia—a perennial cereal, smooth brome (Bromopsis inermis L.), and an annual cereal, common oat (Avena sativa L.). Both species have concentrated TLs and PLs in autumn under cold hardening. In addition, a significant increase in the content of fatty acids (FAs) of B. inermis was observed during the autumn decrease in temperature. The Yakutian horses, which fed on cereals enriched with nutrients preserved by natural cold (green cryo-fodder), accumulated significant amounts of 18:2n-6 and 18:3n-3, the total content of which in cereals was 75% of the total FA content. We found differences in the distribution of these two FAs in different tissues of the horses. Thus, liver was rich in 18:2n-6, while muscle and adipose tissues accumulated mainly 18:3n-3. Such a distribution may indicate different roles of these FAs in the metabolism of the horses. According to FA content, meat of the Yakutian horses is a valuable dietary product.

show abstract

The ancient Yakuts: a population genetic enigma

Cited by 33 publications

References 29 publications

Tracking the origins of Yakutian horses and the genetic basis for their fast adaptation to subarctic environments

Tracking the origins of Yakutian horses and the genetic basis for their fast adaptation to subarctic environments

Ethnic Differences in Spermatozoa Morphological Defects Diversity Among Men From Eastern Siberia, Russia

Fatty Acid Content and Composition of the Yakutian Horses and Their Main Food Source: Living in Extreme Winter Conditions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About