Genomic regions under selection in the feralization of the dingoes

Shao-jie Zhang, Guo-Dong Wang, Pengcheng Ma, Liang-liang Zhang, Ting-Ting Yin, Yan-hu Liu, Newton O. Otecko, Meng Wang, Ya-ping Ma, Lu Wang, Bingyu Mao (), Peter Savolainen () and Ya-ping Zhang ()
Additional contact information
Shao-jie Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Guo-Dong Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Pengcheng Ma: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Liang-liang Zhang: Science for Life Laboratory
Ting-Ting Yin: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yan-hu Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Newton O. Otecko: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Meng Wang: Yunnan University
Ya-ping Ma: Yunnan University
Lu Wang: Yunnan University
Bingyu Mao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Peter Savolainen: Science for Life Laboratory
Ya-ping Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Dingoes are wild canids living in Australia, originating from domestic dogs. They have lived isolated from both the wild and the domestic ancestor, making them a unique model for studying feralization. Here, we sequence the genomes of 10 dingoes and 2 New Guinea Singing Dogs. Phylogenetic and demographic analyses show that dingoes originate from dogs in southern East Asia, which migrated via Island Southeast Asia to reach Australia around 8300 years ago, and subsequently diverged into a genetically distinct population. Selection analysis identifies 50 positively selected genes enriched in digestion and metabolism, indicating a diet change during feralization of dingoes. Thirteen of these genes have shifted allele frequencies compared to dogs but not compared to wolves. Functional assays show that an A-to-G mutation in ARHGEF7 decreases the endogenous expression, suggesting behavioral adaptations related to the transitions in environment. Our results indicate that the feralization of the dingo induced positive selection on genomic regions correlated to neurodevelopment, metabolism and reproduction, in adaptation to a wild environment.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14515-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-14515-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14515-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().