Ancient genomes reveal the evolutionary history and origin of cashmere producing goats in China.

Apr 24, 2020

Contributor: Yudong Cai,Weiwei Fu,Dawei Cai,Rasmus Heller,Zhuqing Zheng,Jia Wen,Hui Li,Xiaolong Wang,Akil Alshawi,Zhouyong Sun,Siqi Zhu,Juan Wang,Miaomiao Yang,Songmei Hu,Yan Li,Zhirui Yang,Mian Gong,Yunan Hou,Tianming Lan,Kui Wu,Yulin Chen,Yu Jiang,Xihong Wang

Ancient genomes reveal the evolutionary history and origin of cashmere producing goats in China.

Goats are one of the most widespread farmed animals across the world; however, their migration route to East Asia and local evolutionary history remain poorly understood. Here, we sequenced 27 ancient Chinese goat genomes dating from the Late Neolithic period to the Iron Age. We found close genetic affinities between ancient and modern Chinese goats, demonstrating their genetic continuity. We found that Chinese goats originated from the eastern regions around the Fertile Crescent, and we estimated that the ancestors of Chinese goats diverged from this population in the Chalcolithic period. Modern Chinese goats were divided into a northern and a southern group, coinciding with the most prominent climatic division in China, and two genes related to hair follicle development, FGF5 and EDA2R, were highly divergent between these populations. We identified a likely causal de novo deletion near FGF5 in northern Chinese goats that increased to high frequency over time, whereas EDA2R harbored standing variation dating to the Neolithic. Our findings add to our understanding of the genetic composition and local evolutionary process of Chinese goats.
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

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About The Expert

Yudong Cai

Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.

Weiwei Fu

Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.

Dawei Cai

Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology, Jilin University, Changchun, China.

Rasmus Heller

Section for Computational and RNA Biology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen N2200, Denmark.

Zhuqing Zheng

Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.

Jia Wen

Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.

Hui Li

Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.

State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, Guangxi University, Nanning, China.

Xiaolong Wang

Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.

Akil Alshawi

School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Nottingham, NG7 2UH, United Kingdom.

Department of Internal and Preventive Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Baghdad, Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Iraq.

Zhouyong Sun

Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology, Xi’an, China.

Siqi Zhu

Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology, Jilin University, Changchun, China.

Juan Wang

Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, Zhengzhou, China.

Miaomiao Yang

Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology, Xi’an, China.

Songmei Hu

Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology, Xi’an, China.

Yan Li

Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.

Zhirui Yang

Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.

Mian Gong

Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.

Yunan Hou

Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.

Tianming Lan

BGI-Shenzhen, Build 11, Beishan Industrial Zone, Yantian District, Shenzhen, China.

Laboratory of Genomics and Molecular Biomedicine, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.

Kui Wu

China National GeneBank-Shenzhen, BGI-Shenzhen, China.

Cancer Institute, BGI-Research, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China.

Yulin Chen

Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.

Yu Jiang

Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.

Xihong Wang

Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China.

References

PubMed