title: Revisiting demographic processes in cattle with genome-wide population genetic analysis.
abstract: The domestication of the aurochs took place approximately 10,000 years ago giving rise to the two main types of domestic cattle known today, taurine (Bos taurus) domesticated somewhere on or near the Fertile Crescent, and indicine (Bos indicus) domesticated in the Indus Valley. However, although cattle have historically played a prominent role in human society the exact origin of many extant breeds is not well known. Here we used a combination of medium and high-density Illumina Bovine SNP arrays (i.e., ~54,000 and ~770,000 SNPs, respectively), genotyped for over 1300 animals representing 56 cattle breeds, to describe the relationships among major European cattle breeds and detect patterns of admixture among them. Our results suggest modern cross-breeding and ancient hybridisation events have both played an important role, including with animals of indicine origin. We use these data to identify signatures of selection reflecting both domestication (hypothesized to produce a common signature across breeds) and local adaptation (predicted to exhibit a signature of selection unique to a single breed or group of related breeds with a common history) to uncover additional demographic complexity of modern European cattle.
authors.affiliation: School of Biosciences, Cardiff University Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Orozco-terWengel
authors.affiliation: School of Biosciences, Cardiff University Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barbato
authors.affiliation: Parco Tecnologico Padano Lodi, Italy.
authors.forename: Ezequiel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nicolazzi
authors.affiliation: Parco Tecnologico Padano Lodi, Italy.
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Biscarini
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Agriculture, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Piacenza, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Milanesi
authors.affiliation: Dinefwr, National Trust Llandeilo, UK.
authors.forename: Wyn
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.affiliation: Independent Researcher Swansea, UK.
authors.forename: Don
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Parco Tecnologico Padano Lodi, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stella
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Agriculture, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Piacenza, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ajmone-Marsan
authors.affiliation: School of Biosciences, Cardiff University Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Bruford
keywords: Bos indicus; Bos taurus; SNP array; adaptation; cattle; phylogeography