Japanese wolves are most closely related to dogs and share DNA with East Eurasian dogs

Jun Gojobori, Nami Arakawa, Xiayire Xiaokaiti, Yuki Matsumoto, Shuichi Matsumura, Hitomi Hongo, Naotaka Ishiguro () and Yohey Terai ()
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Jun Gojobori: Research Center for Integrative Evolutionary Science, Shonan Village
Nami Arakawa: Research Center for Integrative Evolutionary Science, Shonan Village
Xiayire Xiaokaiti: Research Center for Integrative Evolutionary Science, Shonan Village
Yuki Matsumoto: Anicom Specialty Medical Institute
Shuichi Matsumura: Gifu University
Hitomi Hongo: Research Center for Integrative Evolutionary Science, Shonan Village
Naotaka Ishiguro: Research Center for Integrative Evolutionary Science, Shonan Village
Yohey Terai: Research Center for Integrative Evolutionary Science, Shonan Village

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Although the domestic dog’s origin is still unclear, this lineage is believed to have been domesticated from an extinct population of gray wolves, which is expected to be more closely related to dogs than to other populations of gray wolves. Here, we sequence the whole genomes of nine Japanese wolves (7.5–100x: Edo to Meiji periods) and 11 modern Japanese dogs and analyze them together with those from other populations of dogs and wolves. A phylogenomic tree shows that, among the gray wolves, Japanese wolves are closest to the dog, suggesting that the ancestor of dogs is closely related to the ancestor of the Japanese wolf. Based on phylogenetic and geographic relationships, the dog lineage has most likely originated in East Asia, where it diverged from a common ancestor with the Japanese wolf. Since East Eurasian dogs possess Japanese wolf ancestry, we estimate an introgression event from the ancestor of the Japanese wolf to the ancestor of the East Eurasian dog that occurred before the dog’s arrival in the Japanese archipelago.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-46124-y

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