title: Complete Mitochondrial Genomes of New Zealand's First Dogs.
abstract: Dogs accompanied people in their migrations across the Pacific Ocean and ultimately reached New Zealand, which is the southern-most point of their oceanic distribution, around the beginning of the fourteenth century AD. Previous ancient DNA analyses of mitochondrial control region sequences indicated the New Zealand dog population included two lineages. We sequenced complete mitochondrial genomes of fourteen dogs from the colonisation era archaeological site of Wairau Bar and found five closely-related haplotypes. The limited number of mitochondrial lineages present at Wairau Bar suggests that the founding population may have comprised only a few dogs; or that the arriving dogs were closely related. For populations such as that at Wairau Bar, which stemmed from relatively recent migration events, control region sequences have insufficient power to address questions about population structure and founding events. Sequencing mitogenomes provided the opportunity to observe sufficient diversity to discriminate between individuals that would otherwise be assigned the same haplotype and to clarify their relationships with each other. Our results also support the proposition that at least one dispersal of dogs into the Pacific was via a south-western route through Indonesia.
authors.affiliation: Allan Wilson Centre, Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand; Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Greig
authors.affiliation: Allan Wilson Centre, Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand; Department of Biochemistry, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Boocock
authors.affiliation: Allan Wilson Centre, Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand; Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, United States of America.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Prost
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, United States of America; School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
authors.forename: K Ann
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Horsburgh
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jacomb
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.affiliation: Allan Wilson Centre, Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Matisoo-Smith
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D004285:Dogs / Q000235:genetics*; D005828:Genetics, Population / Q000379:methods; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D005843:Geography / Q000379:methods; D006239:Haplotypes / Q000235:genetics; D007214:Indonesia; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics*; D009520:New Zealand; D010140:Pacific Ocean; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial