title: Early Holocene chicken domestication in northern China.
abstract: Chickens represent by far the most important poultry species, yet the number, locations, and timings of their domestication have remained controversial for more than a century. Here we report ancient mitochondrial DNA sequences from the earliest archaeological chicken bones from China, dating back to ∼ 10,000 B.P. The results clearly show that all investigated bones, including the oldest from the Nanzhuangtou site, are derived from the genus Gallus, rather than any other related genus, such as Phasianus. Our analyses also suggest that northern China represents one region of the earliest chicken domestication, possibly dating as early as 10,000 y B.P. Similar to the evidence from pig domestication, our results suggest that these early domesticated chickens contributed to the gene pool of modern chicken populations. Moreover, our results support the idea that multiple members of the genus Gallus, specifically Gallus gallus and Gallus sonneratii contributed to the gene pool of the modern domestic chicken. Our results provide further support for the growing evidence of an early mixed agricultural complex in northern China.
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agricultural Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China;
authors.forename: Hai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relic, Shijiazhuang 050031, China;
authors.forename: Jianqiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Xushui County Office for Preservation of Ancient Monuments, Xushui 072550, China;
authors.forename: Baoquan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Ancient DNA Laboratory, Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology, College of Life Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130023, China;
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Ancient DNA Laboratory, Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology, College of Life Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130023, China;
authors.forename: Dawei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agricultural Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China;
authors.forename: Youwen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agricultural Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China;
authors.forename: Xiaoyong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agricultural Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China;
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Institute for Biochemistry and Biology, University of Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany; and Department of Biology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom michi@palaeo.eu zhxb@cau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hofreiter
authors.affiliation: National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agricultural Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Breeding, and Reproduction, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China; michi@palaeo.eu zhxb@cau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xingbo
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000266:history*; D000818:Animals; D001106:Archaeology / Q000379:methods; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001842:Bone and Bones; D002645:Chickens / Q000235:genetics*; D002681:China; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000032:analysis*; D005788:Gene Pool; D005843:Geography; D006239:Haplotypes; D049690:History, Ancient; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: ancient DNA; chicken; domestication; species origin