[NEWS] Research of the Day: Genomic Analysis and Breed Development

[doks]

TITLE: Genomic Analyses Reveal the Influence of
Geographic Origin, Migration, and Hybridization on
Modern Dog Breed Development

SUMMARY:

There are nearly 400 modern domestic dog breeds
with a unique histories and genetic profiles. To track
the genetic signatures of breed development, we
have assembled the most diverse dataset of dog
breeds, reflecting their extensive phenotypic variation
and heritage. Combining genetic distance,
migration, and genome-wide haplotype sharing analyses,
we uncover geographic patterns of development
and independent origins of common traits.
Our analyses reveal the hybrid history of breeds
and elucidate the effects of immigration, revealing
for the first time a suggestion of New World dog
within some modern breeds. Finally, we used cladistics
and haplotype sharing to show that some common
traits have arisen more than once in the history
of the dog. These analyses characterize the complexities
of breed development, resolving longstanding
questions regarding individual breed origination,
the effect of migration on geographically distinct
breeds, and, by inference, transfer of trait and disease
alleles among dog breeds.

CITATION: Parker, H. G., Dreger, D. L., Rimbault, M., Davis, B. W., Mullen, A. B., Carpintero-Ramirez, G., & Ostrander, E. A. (2017). Genomic Analyses Reveal the Influence of Geographic Origin, Migration, and Hybridization on Modern Dog Breed Development. Cell Reports, 19(4), 697-708.

FULL TEXT: http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/pdfExtended/S2211-1247(17)30456-4

 

[seekinghope]

@doks Link contains parentheses so it buggers up formatting for embedding.
Here's a clickable link:

http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(17)30456-4

 

[doks]

@seekinghope Oops. Thank you for that!

 

[harpazo777]

@doks It's a shame that popular science journalism is so lousy these days, because this study was a major step forward in mapping the emergence of many modern dog breeds, but it's not at all easy for the lay reader to unpack. I haven't seen any breed clubs relaying findings pertinent to their breed from it, and almost all the popular articles I've seen seem to just be ripping off the Nature article, which wasn't all that informative to begin with.

I love the fact that the study's supplemental tables allow you to look up every single breed tested and see all the breeds it's recently related to (i.e. showed extensive haplotype sharing with). They even give you a formula for calculating the number of years since Breed X and Breed Y last shared an ancestor, based on total haplotype sharing.

Tons of fascinating stuff in there...GSDs are more closely related to Xoloitzcuintli than they are to Malinois; Corgis aren't descended from Vallhund-type Viking dogs after all; Kelpies are closer to Beardies and Cardigans than they are to ACDs; European sighthounds, UK/Aussie herders, and European molossers all share a common ancestor...basically, while form does follow function, it doesn't necessarily tell you anything about ancestry, because the same forms were developed multiple times in multiple places in response to similar needs. It's just unfortunate that it's so tedious to ferret all that information out.

 

[doks]

@harpazo777 Yeah, I'll admit, it was a dense read. I haven't actually absorbed it all (working on my masters with other dense reads, my brain can't handle more). I thought the GSD stuff was interesting too!