Correlating Bayesian date estimates with climatic events and domestication using a bovine case study.
The tribe Bovini contains a number of commercially and culturally important species, such as cattle. Understanding their evolutionary time scale is important for distinguishing between post-glacial and domestication-associated population expansions, but estimates of bovine divergence times have been hindered by a lack of reliable calibration points. We present a Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of 481 mitochondrial D-loop sequences, including 228 radiocarbon-dated ancient DNA sequences, using a multi-demographic coalescent model. By employing the radiocarbon dates as internal calibrations, we co-estimate the bovine phylogeny and divergence times in a relaxed-clock framework. The analysis yields evidence for significant population expansions in both taurine and zebu cattle, European aurochs and yak clades. The divergence age estimates support domestication-associated expansion times (less than 12 kyr) for the major haplogroups of cattle. We compare the molecular and palaeontological estimates for the Bison-Bos divergence.
Ho
Simon Y W
SY
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. simon.ho@anu.edu.au
Larson
Greger
G
Edwards
Ceiridwen J
CJ
Heupink
Tim H
TH
Lakin
Kay E
KE
Holland
Peter W H
PW
Shapiro
Beth
B
D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D002417:Cattle / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D002980:Climate; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006239:Haplotypes; D010802:Phylogeny; D011157:Population Dynamics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA