Evolution and legacy of East Asian aurochs

Jiawen Hou; Xiwen Guan; Xiaoting Xia; Yang Lyu; Xin Liu; Yuri Mazei; Ping Xie; Fengqin Chang; Xiaonan Zhang; Jialei Chen; Xinyi Li; Fengwei Zhang; Liangliang Jin; Xiaoyu Luo; Mikkel-Holger S Sinding; Xin Sun; Alessandro Achilli; Nicola Rambaldi Migliore; Dongju Zhang; Johannes A Lenstra; Jianlin Han; Qiaomei Fu; Xinyi Liu; Xiaoming Zhang; Ningbo Chen; Chuzhao Lei; Hucai Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2024.09.016

Evolution and legacy of East Asian aurochs

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2024 Nov 15;69(21):3425-3433. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2024.09.016. Epub 2024 Sep 19.

Authors

Jiawen Hou¹, Xiwen Guan², Xiaoting Xia², Yang Lyu², Xin Liu², Yuri Mazei³, Ping Xie⁴, Fengqin Chang⁴, Xiaonan Zhang⁴, Jialei Chen², Xinyi Li⁵, Fengwei Zhang², Liangliang Jin², Xiaoyu Luo², Mikkel-Holger S Sinding⁶, Xin Sun⁶, Alessandro Achilli⁷, Nicola Rambaldi Migliore⁷, Dongju Zhang⁸, Johannes A Lenstra⁹, Jianlin Han¹⁰, Qiaomei Fu¹¹, Xinyi Liu¹², Xiaoming Zhang¹³, Ningbo Chen¹⁴, Chuzhao Lei¹⁵, Hucai Zhang¹⁶

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China; Key Laboratory of Genetic Evolution & Animal Models, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China; Yunnan Key Laboratory of Integrative Anthropology, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China.
² Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
³ Department of Biology, Shenzhen MSU-BIT University, Shenzhen 518172, China.
⁴ Institute for Ecological Research and Pollution Control of Plateau Lakes, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China; Key Laboratory of Genetic Evolution & Animal Models, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China.
⁶ Section for Computational and RNA Biology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen DK-1350, Denmark.
⁷ Department of Biology and Biotechnology, L. Spallanzani University of Pavia, Pavia 27100, Italy.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China.
⁹ Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht 3584 CS, the Netherlands.
¹⁰ Yazhouwan National Laboratory, Sanya 572024, China; CAAS-ILRI Joint Laboratory on Livestock and Forage Genetic Resources, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Beijing 100193, China.
¹¹ Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
¹² Anthropology Department, Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, MO 63130, USA.
¹³ Key Laboratory of Genetic Evolution & Animal Models, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China; Yunnan Key Laboratory of Integrative Anthropology, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China; Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650201, China. Electronic address: zhangxiaoming@mail.kiz.ac.cn.
¹⁴ Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China. Electronic address: ningbochen@nwafu.edu.cn.
¹⁵ Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics Breeding and Reproduction of Shaanxi Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China. Electronic address: leichuzhao1118@nwafu.edu.cn.
¹⁶ Institute for Ecological Research and Pollution Control of Plateau Lakes, School of Ecology and Environmental Science, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China; Southwest United Graduate School, Kunming 650500, China. Electronic address: zhanghc@ynu.edu.cn.

PMID: 39322456
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2024.09.016

Abstract

Aurochs (Bos primigenius), once widely distributed in Afro-Eurasia, became extinct in the early 1600 s. However, their phylogeography and relative contributions to domestic cattle remain unknown. In this study, we analyzed 16 genomes of ancient aurochs and three mitogenomes of ancient bison (Bison priscus) excavated in East Asia, dating from 43,000 to 3,590 years ago. These newly generated data with previously published genomic information on aurochs as well as ancient/extant domestic cattle worldwide through genome analysis. Our findings revealed significant genetic divergence between East Asian aurochs and their European, Near Eastern, and African counterparts on the basis of both mitochondrial and nuclear genomic data. Furthermore, we identified evidence of gene flow from East Asian aurochs into ancient and present-day taurine cattle, suggesting their potential role in facilitating the environmental adaptation of domestic cattle.

Keywords: Adaptive introgression; Ancient DNA; Cattle domestication; East Asian aurochs.

MeSH terms

Animals
Asia, Eastern
Biological Evolution
Cattle / genetics
Evolution, Molecular
Extinction, Biological
Gene Flow
Genetic Variation / genetics
Genome, Mitochondrial / genetics
Phylogeny*
Phylogeography
Ruminants* / genetics