title: Ancient DNA and population turnover in southern levantine pigs--signature of the sea peoples migration?
abstract: Near Eastern wild boars possess a characteristic DNA signature. Unexpectedly, wild boars from Israel have the DNA sequences of European wild boars and domestic pigs. To understand how this anomaly evolved, we sequenced DNA from ancient and modern pigs from Israel. Pigs from Late Bronze Age (until ca. 1150 BCE) in Israel shared haplotypes of modern and ancient Near Eastern pigs. European haplotypes became dominant only during the Iron Age (ca. 900 BCE). This raises the possibility that European pigs were brought to the region by the Sea Peoples who migrated to the Levant at that time. Then, a complete genetic turnover took place, most likely because of repeated admixture between local and introduced European domestic pigs that went feral. Severe population bottlenecks likely accelerated this process. Introductions by humans have strongly affected the phylogeography of wild animals, and interpretations of phylogeography based on modern DNA alone should be taken with caution.
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel [2] Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Meirav
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meiri
authors.forename: Dorothée
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huchon
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bar-Oz
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Boaretto
authors.forename: Liora Kolska
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Horwitz
authors.forename: Aren M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Maeir
authors.forename: Lidar
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sapir-Hen
authors.forename: Greger
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Larson
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weiner
authors.forename: Israel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Finkelstein
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001106:Archaeology; D004247:DNA; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005843:Geography; D006239:Haplotypes; D063426:Human Migration; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D010802:Phylogeny; D034421:Sus scrofa / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D004247:DNA