TY - JOUR

T1 - Whole-genome sequence analysis unveils different origins of European and Asiatic mouflon and domestication-related genes in sheep

AU - Chen, Ze-Hui

AU - Xu, Ya-Xi

AU - Xie, Xing-Long

AU - Wang, Dong-Feng

AU - Aguilar-Gómez, Diana

AU - Liu, Guang-Jian

AU - Li, Xin

AU - Esmailizadeh, Ali

AU - Rezaei, Vahideh

AU - Kantanen, Juha

AU - Ammosov, Innokentyi

AU - Nosrati, Maryam

AU - Periasamy, Kathiravan

AU - Coltman, David W.

AU - Lenstra, Johannes A.

AU - Nielsen, Rasmus

AU - Li, Meng-Hua

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - The domestication and subsequent development of sheep are crucial events in the history of human civilization and the agricultural revolution. However, the impact of interspecific introgression on the genomic regions under domestication and subsequent selection remains unclear. Here, we analyze the whole genomes of domestic sheep and their wild relative species. We found introgression from wild sheep such as the snow sheep and its American relatives (bighorn and thinhorn sheep) into urial, Asiatic and European mouflons. We observed independent events of adaptive introgression from wild sheep into the Asiatic and European mouflons, as well as shared introgressed regions from both snow sheep and argali into Asiatic mouflon before or during the domestication process. We revealed European mouflons might arise through hybridization events between a now extinct sheep in Europe and feral domesticated sheep around 6000–5000 years BP. We also unveiled later introgressions from wild sheep to their sympatric domestic sheep after domestication. Several of the introgression events contain loci with candidate domestication genes (e.g., PAPPA2, NR6A1, SH3GL3, RFX3 and CAMK4), associated with morphological, immune, reproduction or production traits (wool/meat/milk). We also detected introgression events that introduced genes related to nervous response (NEURL1), neurogenesis (PRUNE2), hearing ability (USH2A), and placental viability (PAG11 and PAG3) into domestic sheep and their ancestral wild species from other wild species.

AB - The domestication and subsequent development of sheep are crucial events in the history of human civilization and the agricultural revolution. However, the impact of interspecific introgression on the genomic regions under domestication and subsequent selection remains unclear. Here, we analyze the whole genomes of domestic sheep and their wild relative species. We found introgression from wild sheep such as the snow sheep and its American relatives (bighorn and thinhorn sheep) into urial, Asiatic and European mouflons. We observed independent events of adaptive introgression from wild sheep into the Asiatic and European mouflons, as well as shared introgressed regions from both snow sheep and argali into Asiatic mouflon before or during the domestication process. We revealed European mouflons might arise through hybridization events between a now extinct sheep in Europe and feral domesticated sheep around 6000–5000 years BP. We also unveiled later introgressions from wild sheep to their sympatric domestic sheep after domestication. Several of the introgression events contain loci with candidate domestication genes (e.g., PAPPA2, NR6A1, SH3GL3, RFX3 and CAMK4), associated with morphological, immune, reproduction or production traits (wool/meat/milk). We also detected introgression events that introduced genes related to nervous response (NEURL1), neurogenesis (PRUNE2), hearing ability (USH2A), and placental viability (PAG11 and PAG3) into domestic sheep and their ancestral wild species from other wild species.

U2 - 10.1038/s42003-021-02817-4

DO - 10.1038/s42003-021-02817-4

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 34795381

AN - SCOPUS:85119411697

VL - 4

JO - Communications Biology

JF - Communications Biology

SN - 2399-3642

M1 - 1307

ER -