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Subject: [DNA] PubMed abstract: ancient DNA of the domestic pig in Europe
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2007 10:00:19 EDT

Free full text is available online:

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1976408&blobtype=pdf

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Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Sep 13; [Epub ahead of print]

Ancient DNA, pig domestication, and the spread of the Neolithic into Europe.

Larson G, Albarella U, Dobney K, Rowley-Conwy P, Schibler J, Tresset A, Vigne
JD, Edwards CJ, Schlumbaum A, Dinu A, Balacsescu A, Dolman G, Tagliacozzo A,
Manaseryan N, Miracle P, Van Wijngaarden-Bakker L, Masseti M, Bradley DG,
Cooper A.

Department of Zoology, Henry Wellcome Ancient Biomolecules Centre, South
Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom;

The Neolithic Revolution began 11,000 years ago in the Near East and preceded
a westward migration into Europe of distinctive cultural groups and their
agricultural economies, including domesticated animals and plants. Despite
decades of research, no consensus has emerged about the extent of admixture between
the indigenous and exotic populations or the degree to which the appearance of
specific components of the "Neolithic cultural package" in Europe reflects
truly independent development. Here, through the use of mitochondrial DNA from
323 modern and 221 ancient pig specimens sampled across western Eurasia, we
demonstrate that domestic pigs of Near Eastern ancestry were definitely
introduced into Europe during the Neolithic (potentially along two separate routes),
reaching the Paris Basin by at least the early 4th millennium B.C. Local
European wild boar were also domesticated by this time, possibly as a direct
consequence of the introduction of Near Eastern domestic pigs. Once domesticated,
European pigs rapidly replaced the introduced domestic pigs of Near Eastern origin
throughout Europe. Domestic pigs formed a key component of the Neolithic
Revolution, and this detailed genetic record of their origins reveals a complex
set of interactions and processes during the spread of early farmers into
Europe.

PMID: 17855556 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]



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