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Tracking the origins of Yakutian horses and the genetic basis for their fast adaptation to subarctic environments.

  • Librado P Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350K Copenhagen, Denmark;
  • Der Sarkissian C Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350K Copenhagen, Denmark;
  • Ermini L Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350K Copenhagen, Denmark;
  • Schubert M Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350K Copenhagen, Denmark;
  • Jónsson H Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350K Copenhagen, Denmark;
  • Albrechtsen A Bioinformatics Centre, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, 2200N Copenhagen, Denmark;
  • Fumagalli M UCL Genetics Institute, Department of Genetics, Evolution, and Environment, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom;
  • Yang MA Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3140;
  • Gamba C Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350K Copenhagen, Denmark;
  • Seguin-Orlando A Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350K Copenhagen, Denmark; National High-Throughput DNA Sequencing Centre, University of Copenhagen, 1353K Copenhagen, Denmark;
  • Mortensen CD National High-Throughput DNA Sequencing Centre, University of Copenhagen, 1353K Copenhagen, Denmark;
  • Petersen B Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark;
  • Hoover CA Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA 94598;
  • Lorente-Galdos B Universitat Pompeu Fabra/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico, 08028 Barcelona, Spain;
  • Nedoluzhko A National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute, Moscow 123182, Russia;
  • Boulygina E National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute, Moscow 123182, Russia;
  • Tsygankova S National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute, Moscow 123182, Russia;
  • Neuditschko M Agroscope, Swiss National Stud Farm, 1580 Avenches, Switzerland;
  • Jagannathan V Institute of Genetics, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland;
  • Thèves C Université de Toulouse, University Paul Sabatier, Laboratoire d'Anthropobiologie Moléculaire et d'Imagerie de Synthèse, CNRS UMR 5288, 31000 Toulouse, France;
  • Alfarhan AH Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia;
  • Alquraishi SA Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia;
  • Al-Rasheid KA Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia;
  • Sicheritz-Ponten T Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark;
  • Popov R Yakutian Research Institute of Agriculture, 677002 Yakutsk, Sakha, Russia;
  • Grigoriev S North-Eastern Federal University, 677000 Yakutsk, Russia;
  • Alekseev AN North-Eastern Federal University, 677000 Yakutsk, Russia;
  • Rubin EM Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, CA 94598;
  • McCue M College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108;
  • Rieder S Agroscope, Swiss National Stud Farm, 1580 Avenches, Switzerland;
  • Leeb T Institute of Genetics, University of Bern, 3001 Bern, Switzerland;
  • Tikhonov A Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, 199034 Saint-Petersburg, Russia;
  • Crubézy E Université de Toulouse, University Paul Sabatier, Laboratoire d'Anthropobiologie Moléculaire et d'Imagerie de Synthèse, CNRS UMR 5288, 31000 Toulouse, France;
  • Slatkin M Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3140;
  • Marques-Bonet T Universitat Pompeu Fabra/Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico, 08028 Barcelona, Spain;
  • Nielsen R Center for Theoretical Evolutionary Genomics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3140;
  • Willerslev E Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350K Copenhagen, Denmark;
  • Kantanen J Biotechnology and Food Research, Agrifood Research Finland, 31600 Jokioinen, Finland; Department of Biology, University of Eastern Finland, 70211 Kuopio, Finland.
  • Prokhortchouk E National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute, Moscow 123182, Russia;
  • Orlando L Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350K Copenhagen, Denmark; Université de Toulouse, University Paul Sabatier, Laboratoire d'Anthropobiologie Moléculaire et d'Imagerie de Synthèse, CNRS UMR 5288, 31000 Toulouse, France; lorlando@snm.ku.dk.
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  • 2015-11-25
Published in:
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - 2015
adaptation
ancient genomics
horse
population discontinuity
regulatory changes
Adaptation, Physiological
Animals
Arctic Regions
Cold Temperature
Evolution, Molecular
Genome
Horses
Siberia
English Yakutia, Sakha Republic, in the Siberian Far East, represents one of the coldest places on Earth, with winter record temperatures dropping below -70 °C. Nevertheless, Yakutian horses survive all year round in the open air due to striking phenotypic adaptations, including compact body conformations, extremely hairy winter coats, and acute seasonal differences in metabolic activities. The evolutionary origins of Yakutian horses and the genetic basis of their adaptations remain, however, contentious. Here, we present the complete genomes of nine present-day Yakutian horses and two ancient specimens dating from the early 19th century and ∼5,200 y ago. By comparing these genomes with the genomes of two Late Pleistocene, 27 domesticated, and three wild Przewalski's horses, we find that contemporary Yakutian horses do not descend from the native horses that populated the region until the mid-Holocene, but were most likely introduced following the migration of the Yakut people a few centuries ago. Thus, they represent one of the fastest cases of adaptation to the extreme temperatures of the Arctic. We find cis-regulatory mutations to have contributed more than nonsynonymous changes to their adaptation, likely due to the comparatively limited standing variation within gene bodies at the time the population was founded. Genes involved in hair development, body size, and metabolic and hormone signaling pathways represent an essential part of the Yakutian horse adaptive genetic toolkit. Finally, we find evidence for convergent evolution with native human populations and woolly mammoths, suggesting that only a few evolutionary strategies are compatible with survival in extremely cold environments.
Language
  • English
Open access status
bronze
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/178064
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