Sled dogs are closely related to 9,500-year-old 'ancient dog'

Date:
June 25, 2020
Source:
University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
Summary:
Sled dogs are much older and have adapted to Arctic conditions much
earlier than previously thought. Researchers show that ancestors
of modern sled dogs have worked and lived with humans for over
9,500 years.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== [Sled dogs (stock | Credit: (c) murmakova / stock.adobe.com] Sled dogs
(stock image).

Credit: (c) murmakova / stock.adobe.com [Sled dogs (stock | Credit:
(c) murmakova / stock.adobe.com] Sled dogs (stock image).

Credit: (c) murmakova / stock.adobe.com Close Sledge dogs are much
older and have adapted to Arctic conditions much earlier than previously thought. In a new study from the QIMMEQ project, researchers from the University of Copenhagen show that ancestors of modern sledge dogs have
worked and lived with humans for over 9,500 years.


==========================================================================
Dogs play an important role in human life all over the world -- whether
as a family member or as a working animal. But where the dog comes from
and how old various groups of dogs are is still a bit of a mystery.

Now, light has been shed on the origin of the sledge dog. In a new
study published in SCIENCE, researchers from the Faculty of Health and
Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, show that the sledge dog is
both older and has adapted to the Arctic much earlier than thought. The research was conducted in collaboration with the University of Greenland
and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Barcelona.

"We have extracted DNA from a 9,500-year-old dog from the Siberian island
of Zhokhov, which the dog is named after. Based on that DNA we have
sequenced the oldest complete dog genome to date, and the results show an extremely early diversification of dogs into types of sledge dogs," says
one of the two first authors of the study, PhD student Mikkel Sinding,
the Globe Institute.

Until now, it has been the common belief that the 9,500-year-old
Siberian dog, Zhokhov, was a kind of ancient dog -- one of the earliest domesticated dogs and a version of the common origin of all dogs. But
according to the new study, modern sledge dogs such as the Siberian Husky,
the Alaskan Malamute and the Greenland sledge dog share the major part
of their genome with Zhokhov.

"This means that modern sledge dogs and Zhokhov had the same common origin
in Siberia more than 9,500 years ago. Until now, we have thought that
sledge dogs were only 2-3,000 years old," says the other first author, Associate Professor Shyam Gopalakrishnan, Globe Institute.



==========================================================================
The Original Sledge Dog To learn more about the origins of the sledge dog, researchers have further sequenced genomes of a 33,000-year-old Siberian
wolf and ten modern Greenlandic sledge dogs. They have compared these
genomes to genomes of dogs and wolves from around the world.

"We can see that the modern sledge dogs have most of their genomes in
common with Zhokhov. So, they are more closely related to this ancient
dog than to other dogs and wolves. But not just that -- we can see traces
of crossbreeding with wolves such as the 33,000-year-old Siberian wolf
-- but not with modern wolves. It further emphasises that the origin
of the modern sledge dog goes back much further than we had thought,"
says Mikkel Sinding.

The modern sledge dogs have more genetic overlap with other modern dog
breeds than Zhokhov has, but the studies do not show us where or when
this occurred.

Nevertheless, among modern sledge dogs, the Greenland sledge dogs stands
out and has the least overlap with other dogs, meaning that the Greenland sledge dog is probably the most original sledge dog in the world.

Common Features with Inuit and Polar Bears In addition to advancing the
common understanding of the origin of sledge dogs, the new study also
teaches the researchers more about the differences between sledge dogs
and other dogs. Sledge dogs do not have the same genetic adaptations to
a sugar and starch rich diet that other dogs have. On the other hand,
they have adaptations to high-fat diets, with mechanisms that are similar
to those described for polar bears and Arctic people.

"This emphasises that sledge dogs and Arctic people have worked and
adapted together for more than 9,500 years. We can also see that they
have adaptations that are probably linked to improved oxygen uptake,
which makes sense in relation to sledding and give the sledding tradition ancient roots," says Shyam Gopalakrishnan.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Copenhagen,_Faculty_of_Health_and_Medical Sciences. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding, Shyam Gopalakrishnan, Jazmi'n
Ramos-Madrigal,
Marc De Manuel, Vladimir V. Pitulko, Lukas Kuderna, Tatiana
R. Feuerborn, Laurent A. F. Frantz, Filipe G. Vieira, Jonas
Niemann, Jose A. Samaniego Castruita, Christian Caro/e, Emilie
U. Andersen-Ranberg, Peter D. Jordan, Elena Y. Pavlova, Pavel
A. Nikolskiy, Aleksei K. Kasparov, Varvara V.

Ivanova, Eske Willerslev, Pontus Skoglund, Merete Fredholm,
Sanne Eline Wennerberg, Mads Peter Heide-Jo/rgensen, Rune Dietz,
Christian Sonne, Morten Meldgaard, Love Dale'n, Greger Larson,
Bent Petersen, Thomas Sicheritz-Ponte'n, Lutz Bachmann,
O/ystein Wiig, Tomas Marques-Bonet, Anders J. Hansen,
M. Thomas P. Gilbert. Arctic-adapted dogs emerged at the
Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Science, 2020; 368 (6498):
1495-1499 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz8599 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200625144816.htm

--- up 22 weeks, 2 days, 2 hours, 34 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1337:3/111)