Nature 464, 898-902 (8 April 2010) | doi:10.1038/nature08837; Received 1 September 2009; Accepted 19 January 2010; Published online 17 March 2010
Genome-wide SNP and haplotype analyses reveal a rich history underlying dog domestication
Bridgett M. vonHoldt1, John P. Pollinger1, Kirk E. Lohmueller2, Eunjung Han3, Heidi G. Parker4, Pascale Quignon4, Jeremiah D. Degenhardt2, Adam R. Boyko2, Dent A. Earl5, Adam Auton2, Andy Reynolds2, Kasia Bryc2, Abra Brisbin2, James C. Knowles1, Dana S. Mosher4, Tyrone C. Spady4, Abdel Elkahloun4, Eli Geffen6, Malgorzata Pilot7, Wlodzimierz Jedrzejewski8, Claudia Greco9, Ettore Randi9, Danika Bannasch10, Alan Wilton11, Jeremy Shearman11, Marco Musiani12, Michelle Cargill13, Paul G. Jones14, Zuwei Qian15, Wei Huang15, Zhao-Li Ding16, Ya-ping Zhang17, Carlos D. Bustamante2, Elaine A. Ostrander4, John Novembre1,18 & Robert K. Wayne1
Advances in genome technology have facilitated a new understanding of the historical and genetic processes crucial to rapid phenotypic evolution under domestication1, 2. To understand the process of dog diversification better, we conducted an extensive genome-wide survey of more than 48,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms in dogs and their wild progenitor, the grey wolf. Here we show that dog breeds share a higher proportion of multi-locus haplotypes unique to grey wolves from the Middle East, indicating that they are a dominant source of genetic diversity for dogs rather than wolves from east Asia, as suggested by mitochondrial DNA sequence data3. Furthermore, we find a surprising correspondence between genetic and phenotypic/functional breed groupings but there are exceptions that suggest phenotypic diversification depended in part on the repeated crossing of individuals with novel phenotypes. Our results show that Middle Eastern wolves were a critical source of genome diversity, although interbreeding with local wolf populations clearly occurred elsewhere in the early history of specific lineages. More recently, the evolution of modern dog breeds seems to have been an iterative process that drew on a limited genetic toolkit to create remarkable phenotypic diversity.