Search results for "Domestication"
showing 10 items of 85 documents
Y-SNPs Do Not Indicate Hybridisation between European Aurochs and Domestic Cattle
2008
BackgroundPrevious genetic studies of modern and ancient mitochondrial DNA have confirmed the Near Eastern origin of early European domestic cattle. However, these studies were not able to test whether hybridisation with male aurochs occurred post-domestication. To address this issue, Götherström and colleagues (2005) investigated the frequencies of two Y-chromosomal haplotypes in extant bulls. They found a significant influence of wild aurochs males on domestic populations thus challenging the common view on early domestication and Neolithic stock-rearing. To test their hypothesis, we applied these Y-markers on Neolithic bone specimens from various European archaeological sites.Methods and…
Tracking Five Millennia of Horse Management with Extensive Ancient Genome Time Series
2019
Summary Horse domestication revolutionized warfare and accelerated travel, trade, and the geographic expansion of languages. Here, we present the largest DNA time series for a non-human organism to date, including genome-scale data from 149 ancient animals and 129 ancient genomes (≥1-fold coverage), 87 of which are new. This extensive dataset allows us to assess the modern legacy of past equestrian civilizations. We find that two extinct horse lineages existed during early domestication, one at the far western (Iberia) and the other at the far eastern range (Siberia) of Eurasia. None of these contributed significantly to modern diversity. We show that the influence of Persian-related horse …
Genetic Structure of Wild and Cultivated Olives in the Central Mediterranean Basin
2006
Background and Aims: Olive cultivars and their wild relatives (oleasters) represent two botanical varieties of Olea europaea subsp. europaea (respectively europaea and sylvestris). Olive cultivars have undergone human selection and their area of diffusion overlaps that of oleasters. Populations of genuine wild olives seem restricted to isolated areas of Mediterranean forests, while most other wild-looking forms of olive may include feral forms that escaped cultivation. Methods: The genetic structure of wild and cultivated olive tree populations was evaluated by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers at a microscale level in one continental and two insular Italian regions. Key…
Holm Oak Quercus ilex L.
2018
The holm oak is an evergreen tree species representative of Mediterranean forests. The largest populations of this species are in the Iberian Peninsula, forming the tree cover of an agro-silvo-pastoral system called “dehesa” in Spain and “montado” in Portugal. The high ecological and economic value of the species is of interest for rural development. The main current product are the acorns used for feeding Iberian black pigs, which are the basis of an important gastronomic industry. In addition, several bioactive compounds with new potential industrial applications in nutrition, pharmacology and cosmetics have been identified in acorns of oak species. Plantations with holm oak seedlings myc…
On the origin of European sheep as revealed by the diversity of the Balkan breeds and by optimizing population-genetic analysis tools
2020
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 commo…
Molecular evolution in yeast of biotechnological interest
2003
The importance of yeast in the food and beverage industries was only realized about 1860, when the role of these organisms in food manufacture became evident. Since they grow on a wide range of substrates and can tolerate extreme physicochemical conditions, yeasts, especially the genera Saccharomyces and Kluyveromyces, have been applied to many industrial processes, Industrial strains of these genera are highly specialized organisms that have evolved to utilize a range of environments and ecological niches to their full potential. This adaptation is called "domestication". This review describes the phylogenetic relationships among Saccharomyces and Kluyveromyces species and the different me…
Mobile communication and the family: Asian experiences in technology domestication
2016
Amidst a record influx of refugees from the Middle East and Africa into Europe, it is puzzling to notice that many are making their journeys with almost nothing but a smartphone. Families are left ...
Current Thoughts on the Neolithisation Process of the Western Mediterranean
2017
The analysis of the Neolithisation process constitutes a recurrent theme in the scientific literature given the fundamental change for human populations implied in the transition from a hunting-fishing-gathering economy to one based on domestication and food production. Nonetheless, the majority of the regional syntheses on a European scale published to date have dealt mainly with the historical narrative of the process, focusing on discussing the Neolithisation process from a demographic and/or cultural perspective. In this respect, the work of Ammerman and Cavalli Sforza (1984) without doubt constituted a turning point in a number of aspects relevant to the study of the Neolithisation of …
Early history of European domestic cattle as revealed by ancient DNA
2006
We present an extensive ancient DNA analysis of mainly Neolithic cattle bones sampled from archaeological sites along the route of Neolithic expansion, from Turkey to North-Central Europe and Britain. We place this first reasonable population sample of Neolithic cattle mitochondrial DNA sequence diversity in context to illustrate the continuity of haplotype variation patterns from the first European domestic cattle to the present. Interestingly, the dominant Central European pattern, a starburst phylogeny around the modal sequence, T3, has a Neolithic origin, and the reduced diversity within this cluster in the ancient samples accords with their shorter history of post-domestic accumulation…
Historical biogeography of olive domestication (Olea europaea L.) as revealed by geometrical morphometry applied to biological and archaeological mat…
2003
Aim This study intends to improve our understanding of historical biogeography of olive domestication in the Mediterranean Basin, particularly in the north-western area. Location Investigations were performed simultaneously on olive stones from extant wild populations, extant cultivated varieties from various Mediterranean countries, and archaeological assemblages of Spanish, French and Italian settlements. Methods A combination of morphometrics (traditional and geometrical) allowed us to study both the size and shape of endocarp structure. Concerning shape, a size-standardized method coupled with fitted polynomial regression analysis was performed. Results We found morphological criter…