Mitochondrial DNA analysis of horses recovered from a frozen tomb (Berel site, Kazakhstan, 3rd Century BC).
Abstract: Sequence polymorphism of the mitochondrial DNA D-loop was used to determine the genetic diversity of horses recovered from a Scythian princely tomb dating from the beginning of the 3rd century BC. Eight haplotypes were found among the 13 ancient horse samples tested. Phylogenetical analysis showed that these ancient horse's sequences, along with two Yakut ones, were distributed throughout the tree defined by modern horses' sequences and are closely related to them. No clear geographical affiliation of the specimens studied was thus determined. Our work, among others, supports the very ancient origin of the matrilines in horses.
Publication Date: 2005-06-04 PubMed ID: 15932398DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2052.2005.01316.xGoogle Scholar: Lookup
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- Comparative Study
- Journal Article
Summary
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The study analyzes the mitochondrial DNA of horses found in a 3rd-century frozen tomb in Kazakhstan to provide insight into the genetic diversity of these ancient horses and their connection to modern horses.
Objective of the Study
- The paper aims to understand the genetic diversity and inter-relatedness of horses from an ancient Scythian princely tomb, dating back to the early 3rd century BC, using mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequence polymorphism analysis.
Methodology
- The researchers retrieved mitochondrial DNA from 13 ancient horse samples found in the tomb.
- The DNA D-Loop, a part of mitochondrial DNA that accumulates mutations at a higher rate and hence provides a high-resolution tool for studying phylogenetics and population genetics, was used in the study.
- Sequence polymorphism, a frequency at which a population’s genetic sequence diverges from the standard sequence at one or more locations, was used to determine the genetic diversity and relationships.
Findings
- The research identified eight different haplotypes among the 13 ancient horse samples. A haplotype is a set of DNA variations, or polymorphisms, that tend to be inherited together and can be used to track the lineage or ancestry of an organism.
- Phylogenetic analysis, which aims to understand the evolutionary relationships between different organisms, was conducted. It was found that these ancient horse sequences, along with two sequences from Yakut horses, were distributed throughout the evolutionary tree defined by modern horse sequences. This suggests a close relationship between the ancient and modern horses.
- No clear geographical affiliation of the horse specimens was determined, implying that these ancient horses were genetically diverse and not limited to a particular geographic area.
Conclusion
- The study concludes that the matrilines (maternal lines of descent) in horses have a very ancient origin. This means that the genetic diversity observed in horses today can be traced back to their ancient ancestors.
- This research is important as it contributes to the understanding of the genetic evolution and diversity of horsesstarting from ancient times.
Cite This Article
APA
Keyser-Tracqui C, Blandin-Frappin P, Francfort HP, Ricaut FX, Lepetz S, Crubézy E, Samashev Z, Ludes B.
(2005).
Mitochondrial DNA analysis of horses recovered from a frozen tomb (Berel site, Kazakhstan, 3rd Century BC).
Anim Genet, 36(3), 203-209.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2052.2005.01316.x Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Moléculaire, Institut de Médecine Légale, 11 rue Humann, 67085 Strasbourg Cedex, France. ckeyser@mageos.com
MeSH Terms
- Animals
- Base Sequence
- Cluster Analysis
- Computational Biology
- DNA Primers
- DNA, Mitochondrial / genetics
- Databases, Nucleic Acid
- Fossils
- Freezing
- Genetic Variation
- Geography
- Haplotypes / genetics
- Horses / genetics
- Kazakhstan
- Molecular Sequence Data
- Phylogeny
- Sequence Alignment
- Sequence Analysis, DNA
Citations
This article has been cited 8 times.- Kusliy MA, Yurlova AA, Neumestova AI, Vorobieva NV, Gutorova NV, Molodtseva AS, Trifonov VA, Popova KO, Polosmak NV, Molodin VI, Vasiliev SK, Semibratov VP, Iderkhangai TO, Kovalev AA, Erdenebaatar D, Graphodatsky AS, Tishkin AA. Genetic History of the Altai Breed Horses: From Ancient Times to Modernity.. Genes (Basel) 2023 Jul 26;14(8).
- Vorobieva NV, Makunin AI, Druzhkova AS, Kusliy MA, Trifonov VA, Popova KO, Polosmak NV, Molodin VI, Vasiliev SK, Shunkov MV, Graphodatsky AS. High genetic diversity of ancient horses from the Ukok Plateau.. PLoS One 2020;15(11):e0241997.
- Dhorne-Pollet S, Barrey E, Pollet N. A new method for long-read sequencing of animal mitochondrial genomes: application to the identification of equine mitochondrial DNA variants.. BMC Genomics 2020 Nov 11;21(1):785.
- Csizmár N, Mihók S, Jávor A, Kusza S. Genetic analysis of the Hungarian draft horse population using partial mitochondrial DNA D-loop sequencing.. PeerJ 2018;6:e4198.
- Almarzook S, Reissmann M, Brockmann GA. Diversity of mitochondrial DNA in three Arabian horse strains.. J Appl Genet 2017 May;58(2):273-276.
- Librado P, Der Sarkissian C, Ermini L, Schubert M, Jónsson H, Albrechtsen A, Fumagalli M, Yang MA, Gamba C, Seguin-Orlando A, Mortensen CD, Petersen B, Hoover CA, Lorente-Galdos B, Nedoluzhko A, Boulygina E, Tsygankova S, Neuditschko M, Jagannathan V, Thèves C, Alfarhan AH, Alquraishi SA, Al-Rasheid KA, Sicheritz-Ponten T, Popov R, Grigoriev S, Alekseev AN, Rubin EM, McCue M, Rieder S, Leeb T, Tikhonov A, Crubézy E, Slatkin M, Marques-Bonet T, Nielsen R, Willerslev E, Kantanen J, Prokhortchouk E, Orlando L. Tracking the origins of Yakutian horses and the genetic basis for their fast adaptation to subarctic environments.. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2015 Dec 15;112(50):E6889-97.
- Petersen JL, Mickelson JR, Cothran EG, Andersson LS, Axelsson J, Bailey E, Bannasch D, Binns MM, Borges AS, Brama P, da Câmara Machado A, Distl O, Felicetti M, Fox-Clipsham L, Graves KT, Guérin G, Haase B, Hasegawa T, Hemmann K, Hill EW, Leeb T, Lindgren G, Lohi H, Lopes MS, McGivney BA, Mikko S, Orr N, Penedo MC, Piercy RJ, Raekallio M, Rieder S, Røed KH, Silvestrelli M, Swinburne J, Tozaki T, Vaudin M, M Wade C, McCue ME. Genetic diversity in the modern horse illustrated from genome-wide SNP data.. PLoS One 2013;8(1):e54997.
- Lippold S, Knapp M, Kuznetsova T, Leonard JA, Benecke N, Ludwig A, Rasmussen M, Cooper A, Weinstock J, Willerslev E, Shapiro B, Hofreiter M. Discovery of lost diversity of paternal horse lineages using ancient DNA.. Nat Commun 2011 Aug 23;2:450.
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