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You are here: Home / Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2019 / Tracking Five Millennia of Horse Management with Extensive Ancient Genome Time Series

Antoine Fages, Kristian Hanghøj, Naveed Khan, Charleen Gaunitz, Andaine Seguin-Orlando, Michela Leonardi, Christian Constantz, Cristina Gamba, Khaled Al-Rasheid, Silvia Albizuri, Ahmed Alfarhan, Morten Allentoft, Saleh Alquraishi, David Anthony, Nurbol Baimukhanov, James Barrett, Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, Norbert Benecke, Eloísa Bernáldez-Sánchez, Luis Berrocal-Rangel, Fereidoun Biglari, Sanne Boessenkool, Bazartseren Boldgiv, Gottfried Brem, Dorcas Brown, Joachim Burger, Eric Crubézy, Linas Daugnora, Hossein Davoudi, Peter Damgaard, María Villa-Ceballos, Sabine Deschler-Erb, Cleia Detry, Nadine Dill, Maria Oom, Anna Dohr, Sturla Ellingvåg, Diimaajav Erdenebaatar, Homa Fathi, Sabine Felkel, Carlos Fernández-Rodríguez, Esteban García-Viñas, Mietje Germonpré, José Granado, Jón Hallsson, Helmut Hemmer, Michael Hofreiter, Aleksei Kasparov, Mutalib Khasanov, Roya Khazaeli, Pavel Kosintsev, Kristian Kristiansen, Tabaldiev Kubatbek, Lukas Kuderna, Pavel Kuznetsov, Haeedeh Laleh, Jennifer Leonard, Johanna Lhuillier, Corina Lettow-Vorbeck, Andrey Logvin, Lembi Lõugas, Arne Ludwig, Cristina Luis, Ana Arruda, Tomas Marques-Bonet, Raquel Silva, Victor Merz, Enkhbayar Mijiddorj, Bryan Miller, Oleg Mochlov, Fatemeh Mohaseb, Arturo Morales, Ariadna Nieto-Espinet, Heidi Nistelberger, Vedat Onar, Albína Pálsdóttir, Vladimir Pitulko, Konstantin Pitskhelauri, Mélanie Pruvost, Petra Sikanjic, Anita Papeša, Natalia Roslyakova, Alireza Sardari, Eberhard Sauer, Renate Schafberg, Amelie Scheu, Jörg Schibler, Angela Schlumbaum, Nathalie Serrand, Aitor Serres-Armero, Beth Shapiro, Shiva Seno, Irina Shevnina, Sonia Shidrang, John Southon, Bastiaan Star, Naomi Sykes, Kamal Taheri, William Taylor, Wolf-Rüdiger Teegen, Tajana Vukičević, Simon Trixl, Dashzeveg Tumen, Sainbileg Undrakhbold, Emma Usmanova, Ali Vahdati, Silvia Valenzuela-Lamas, Catarina Viegas, Barbara Wallner, Jaco Weinstock, Victor Zaibert, Benoit Clavel, Sébastien Lepetz, Marjan Mashkour, Agnar Helgason, Kári Stefánsson, Eric Barrey, Eske Willerslev, Alan Outram, Pablo Librado, and Ludovic Orlando (2019)

Tracking Five Millennia of Horse Management with Extensive Ancient Genome Time Series

Cell, 177:1419-1435.

Summary Horse domestication revolutionized warfare and accelerated travel, trade, and the geographic expansion of languages. Here, we present the largest DNA time series for a non-human organism to date, including genome-scale data from 149 ancient animals and 129 ancient genomes (≥1-fold coverage), 87 of which are new. This extensive dataset allows us to assess the modern legacy of past equestrian civilizations. We find that two extinct horse lineages existed during early domestication, one at the far western (Iberia) and the other at the far eastern range (Siberia) of Eurasia. None of these contributed significantly to modern diversity. We show that the influence of Persian-related horse lineages increased following the Islamic conquests in Europe and Asia. Multiple alleles associated with elite-racing, including at the MSTN “speed gene,” only rose in popularity within the last millennium. Finally, the development of modern breeding impacted genetic diversity more dramatically than the previous millennia of human management.

Peer Review, Impact Factor, RBINS Collection(s)
ancient DNA, horses, management, diversity, extinct lineages, animal breeding, selection, mules, equestrian civilizations, domestication