title: Ancient DNA sheds light on the ancestry of pre-hispanic Canarian pigs.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Canarian Black (CB) pigs belong to an autochthonous and endangered breed, which is spread throughout the Canarian archipelago. It is commonly accepted that they represent a relic of the pig populations that were bred by the Berbers in North Africa over millennia. It is important to note that the geographic isolation of the Canary Islands has preserved this genetic legacy intact from foreign introgressions until the Spanish conquest of the archipelago in the 15(th) century. Ten years ago, it was demonstrated that, in CB pigs, the frequency of the Asian A2 cytochrome-b haplogroup reached 73%. The current work aimed at investigating whether this observation is explained by either a recent or an ancient introgression of CB pigs with Far Eastern pigs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Genetic analyses of 23 ancient samples from pre-hispanic Canarian pigs (420 to 2500 years before present) showed that Near Eastern and Far Eastern genetic signatures were totally absent in the primitive Canarian pre-hispanic pigs. Indeed, the haplotypes detected in these pigs were closely related to those of North African and European wild boars.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results demonstrate that the high frequency of the Far Eastern mitochondrial cytochrome B A2 haplotype in modern Canarian Black pigs probably corresponds to a relatively recent introgression with British breeds.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC - Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Barcelona, Spain. inigo.olalde@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Iñigo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Olalde
authors.affiliation: Instituto Canario de Investigaciones Agrarias, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. jcapote@icia.es.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Capote
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Geografía e Historia, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. cardarco@ull.es.
authors.forename: María C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Del-Arco
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencias Históricas, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. pabloatoche@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Atoche
authors.affiliation: Museo Canario, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. tdelgado@elmuseocanario.com.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Delgado
authors.affiliation: Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre-M Arqueológico, Tenerife, Spain. rganton@museosdetenerife.org.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: González-Anton
authors.affiliation: Museo Arqueológico Benahorita, La Palma, Spain. jorge.pais@cablapalma.es.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pais
authors.affiliation: Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB), Campus UAB, 08193, Bellaterra, Spain. marcel.amills@uab.cat.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Amills
authors.affiliation: Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC - Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Barcelona, Spain. carles.lalueza@upf.edu.
authors.forename: Carles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lalueza-Fox
authors.affiliation: Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC - Universitat Pompeu Fabra), Barcelona, Spain. oscar.ramirez@upf.edu.
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ramírez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006239:Haplotypes; D013030:Spain; D034421:Sus scrofa / Q000235:genetics; D013552:Swine / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D045303:Cytochromes b