The genomic history and global expansion of domestic donkeys

• Autor(a) principal: Todd, Evelyn T.
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Tonasso-Calvière, Laure, Chauvey, Loreleï, Schiavinato, Stéphanie, Fages, Antoine, Seguin-Orlando, Andaine, Clavel, Pierre, Khan, Naveed, Pérez Pardal, Lucía, Patterson Rosa, Laura, Librado, Pablo, Ringbauer, Harald, Verdugo, Marta, Southon, John, Aury, Jean-Marc, Perdereau, Aude, Vila, Emmanuelle, Marzullo, Matilde, Prato, Ornella, Tecchiati, Umberto, Bagnasco Gianni, Giovanna, Tagliacozzo, Antonio, Tinè, Vincenzo, Alhaique, Francesca, Luis Cardoso, João, Valente, Maria João, Telles Antunes, Miguel, Frantz, Laurent, Shapiro, Beth, Bradley, Daniel G., Boulbes, Nicolas, Gardeisen, Armelle, Horwitz, Liora Kolska, Öztan, Aliye, Arbuckle, Benjamin S., Onar, Vedat, Clavel, Benoît, Lepetz, Sébastien, Vahdati, Ali Akbar, Davoudi, Hossein, Mohaseb, Azadeh, Mashkour, Marjan, Bouchez, Olivier, Donnadieu, Cécile, Wincker, Patrick, Brooks, Samantha A., Beja-Pereira, Albano, Wu, Dong-Dong, Orlando, Ludovic
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/19253
• topic: Gene flow; Insights; Ancestry; Equids; DNA

Donkeys transformed human history as essential beasts of burden for long-distance movement, especially across semi-arid and upland environments. They remain insufficiently studied despite globally expanding and providing key support to low- to middle-income communities. To elucidate their domestication history, we constructed a comprehensive genome panel of 207 modern and 31 ancient donkeys, as well as 15 wild equids. We found a strong phylogeographic structure in modern donkeys that supports a single domestication in Africa similar to 5000 BCE, followed by further expansions in this continent and Eurasia and ultimately returning to Africa. We uncover a previously unknown genetic lineage in the Levant similar to 200 BCE, which contributed increasing ancestry toward Asia. Donkey management involved inbreeding and the production of giant bloodlines at a time when mules were essential to the Roman economy and military.