TY - JOUR
T1 - On the origin of European sheep as revealed by the diversity of the Balkan breeds and by optimizing population-genetic analysis tools
AU - Econogene Consortium
AU - Ciani, Elena
AU - Mastrangelo, Salvatore
AU - Da Silva, Anne
AU - Marroni, Fabio
AU - Ferenčaković, Maja
AU - Ajmone-Marsan, Paolo
AU - Baird, Hayley
AU - Barbato, Mario
AU - Colli, Licia
AU - Delvento, Chiara
AU - Dovenski, Toni
AU - Gorjanc, Gregor
AU - Hall, Stephen J G
AU - Hoda, Anila
AU - Li, Meng-Hua
AU - Marković, Božidarka
AU - McEwan, John
AU - Moradi, Mohammad H
AU - Ruiz-Larrañaga, Otsanda
AU - Ružić-Muslić, Dragana
AU - Šalamon, Dragica
AU - Simčič, Mojca
AU - Stepanek, Ondrej
AU - Curik, Ino
AU - Cubric-Curik, Vlatka
AU - Lenstra, Johannes A
PY - 2020/5/14
Y1 - 2020/5/14
N2 - BACKGROUND: In the Neolithic, domestic sheep migrated into Europe and subsequently spread in westerly and northwesterly directions. Reconstruction of these migrations and subsequent genetic events requires a more detailed characterization of the current phylogeographic differentiation.RESULTS: We collected 50 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profiles of Balkan sheep that are currently found near the major Neolithic point of entry into Europe, and combined these data with published genotypes from southwest-Asian, Mediterranean, central-European and north-European sheep and from Asian and European mouflons. We detected clines, ancestral components and admixture by using variants of common analysis tools: geography-informative supervised principal component analysis (PCA), breed-specific admixture analysis, across-breed [Formula: see text] profiles and phylogenetic analysis of regional pools of breeds. The regional Balkan sheep populations exhibit considerable genetic overlap, but are clearly distinct from the breeds in surrounding regions. The Asian mouflon did not influence the differentiation of the European domestic sheep and is only distantly related to present-day sheep, including those from Iran where the mouflons were sampled. We demonstrate the occurrence, from southeast to northwest Europe, of a continuously increasing ancestral component of up to 20% contributed by the European mouflon, which is assumed to descend from the original Neolithic domesticates. The overall patterns indicate that the Balkan region and Italy served as post-domestication migration hubs, from which wool sheep reached Spain and north Italy with subsequent migrations northwards. The documented dispersal of Tarentine wool sheep during the Roman period may have been part of this process. Our results also reproduce the documented 18th century admixture of Spanish Merino sheep into several central-European breeds.CONCLUSIONS: Our results contribute to a better understanding of the events that have created the present diversity pattern, which is relevant for the management of the genetic resources represented by the European sheep population.
AB - BACKGROUND: In the Neolithic, domestic sheep migrated into Europe and subsequently spread in westerly and northwesterly directions. Reconstruction of these migrations and subsequent genetic events requires a more detailed characterization of the current phylogeographic differentiation.RESULTS: We collected 50 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profiles of Balkan sheep that are currently found near the major Neolithic point of entry into Europe, and combined these data with published genotypes from southwest-Asian, Mediterranean, central-European and north-European sheep and from Asian and European mouflons. We detected clines, ancestral components and admixture by using variants of common analysis tools: geography-informative supervised principal component analysis (PCA), breed-specific admixture analysis, across-breed [Formula: see text] profiles and phylogenetic analysis of regional pools of breeds. The regional Balkan sheep populations exhibit considerable genetic overlap, but are clearly distinct from the breeds in surrounding regions. The Asian mouflon did not influence the differentiation of the European domestic sheep and is only distantly related to present-day sheep, including those from Iran where the mouflons were sampled. We demonstrate the occurrence, from southeast to northwest Europe, of a continuously increasing ancestral component of up to 20% contributed by the European mouflon, which is assumed to descend from the original Neolithic domesticates. The overall patterns indicate that the Balkan region and Italy served as post-domestication migration hubs, from which wool sheep reached Spain and north Italy with subsequent migrations northwards. The documented dispersal of Tarentine wool sheep during the Roman period may have been part of this process. Our results also reproduce the documented 18th century admixture of Spanish Merino sheep into several central-European breeds.CONCLUSIONS: Our results contribute to a better understanding of the events that have created the present diversity pattern, which is relevant for the management of the genetic resources represented by the European sheep population.
U2 - 10.1186/s12711-020-00545-7
DO - 10.1186/s12711-020-00545-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 32408891
SN - 0999-193X
VL - 52
JO - Genetics Selection Evolution
JF - Genetics Selection Evolution
M1 - 25
ER -