title: The complete mitochondrial genome of an 11,450-year-old aurochsen (Bos primigenius) from Central Italy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bos primigenius, the aurochs, is the wild ancestor of modern cattle breeds and was formerly widespread across Eurasia and northern Africa. After a progressive decline, the species became extinct in 1627. The origin of modern taurine breeds in Europe is debated. Archaeological and early genetic evidence point to a single Near Eastern origin and a subsequent spread during the diffusion of herding and farming. More recent genetic data are instead compatible with local domestication events or at least some level of local introgression from the aurochs. Here we present the analysis of the complete mitochondrial genome of a pre-Neolithic Italian aurochs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study, we applied a combined strategy employing both multiplex PCR amplifications and 454 pyrosequencing technology to sequence the complete mitochondrial genome of an 11,450-year-old aurochs specimen from Central Italy. Phylogenetic analysis of the aurochs mtDNA genome supports the conclusions from previous studies of short mtDNA fragments--namely that Italian aurochsen were genetically very similar to modern cattle breeds, but highly divergent from the North-Central European aurochsen.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Complete mitochondrial genome sequences are now available for several modern cattle and two pre-Neolithic mtDNA genomes from very different geographic areas. These data suggest that previously identified sub-groups within the widespread modern cattle mitochondrial T clade are polyphyletic, and they support the hypothesis that modern European breeds have multiple geographic origins.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia ed Evoluzione, Università di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy. ggb@unife.it.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lari
authors.forename: Ermanno
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rizzi
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mona
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Corti
authors.forename: Giulio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Catalano
authors.forename: Kefei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Cristiano
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vernesi
authors.forename: Greger
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Larson
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Boscato
authors.forename: Gianluca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Bellis
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Caramelli
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bertorelle
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial; D007558:Italy; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010163:Paleontology; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial