Cited by 416Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestockGenetic diversity and population structureForensic and Genetic Research

Whole-Genome Resequencing Reveals World-Wide Ancestry and Adaptive Introgression Events of Domesticated Cattle in East Asia

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Chen, Ningbo, Cai, Yudong, Chen, Qiuming, Li, Ran, Wang, Kun, Huang, Yongzhen, Hu, Songmei, Huang, Shisheng +20 more·2018·Nature Communications

Abstract

Cattle domestication and the complex histories of East Asian cattle breeds warrant further investigation. Through analysing the genomes of 49 modern breeds and eight East Asian ancient samples, worldwide cattle are consistently classified into five continental groups based on Y-chromosome haplotypes and autosomal variants. We find that East Asian cattle populations are mainly composed of three distinct ancestries, including an earlier East Asian taurine ancestry that reached China at least ~3.9 kya, a later introduced Eurasian taurine ancestry, and a novel Chinese indicine ancestry that diverged from Indian indicine approximately 36.6-49.6 kya. We also report historic introgression events that helped domestic cattle from southern China and the Tibetan Plateau achieve rapid adaptation by acquiring ~2.93% and ~1.22% of their genomes from banteng and yak, respectively. Our findings provide new insights into the evolutionary history of cattle and the importance of introgression in adaptation of cattle to new environmental challenges in East Asia.

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  • The molecular divergence estimate strongly supports two independent domestication events involving distinct aurochs subspecies.

    “strongly supporting the two independent domestication events involving distinct aurochs subspecies.”

    From The Genomic Landscape of Cattle: Domestication, Dispersal, and Adaptive Evolution (2026) · cites this paper as [9]

    The Results (Demographic history of East Asian cattle; page unavailable) estimate taurine–indicine divergence at 201–213 kya, and the Introduction describes two primary domestication centres. But the paper does not say that this molecular estimate strongly establishes independent domestication from distinct aurochs subspecies; its Discussion treats a possible contribution from differentiated wild indicine populations as hypothetical. (LLM, conf=0.84)

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  • Molecular divergence of taurine and indicine lineages occurred approximately 201,000-301,200 years ago.

    “Molecular divergence of taurine and indicine (also referred to as zebu) lineages is estimated to have occurred at approximately 201,000–301,200 years ago [5,7,8,9,10], strongly supporting the two independent domestication events involving distinct aurochs subspecies.”

    From The Genomic Landscape of Cattle: Domestication, Dispersal, and Adaptive Evolution (2026) · cites this paper as [9]

    The Results section, “Demographic history of East Asian cattle” (page unavailable), estimates taurine–indicine divergence at approximately 201–213 thousand years ago and reports an earlier molecular-divergence range of 117–332 thousand years. It supports divergence around 201 thousand years ago, but not the claimed upper bound of 301,200 years. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The Y2 haplogroup is distributed across Eurasia and Africa, while Y2a sub-haplogroup is dominant in Eurasian cattle and Y2b sub-haplogroup is found at a higher proportion in Northeast Asian and Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau cattle.

    “The Y2 haplogroup is distributed across Eurasia and Africa, whiel Y2a sub-haplogroup is dominant in Eurasian cattle and Y2b sub-haplogroup is found having a higher proportion in Northeast Asian and Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau cattle [9,34].”

    From The Genomic Landscape of Cattle: Domestication, Dispersal, and Adaptive Evolution (2026) · cites this paper as [9]

    The Results (Paternal and maternal phylogenetic analyses) and Discussion report Y2a in Northwest Chinese and Central-South European cattle, and Y2b as predominant in Northeast Asian and Tibetan Plateau cattle. They do not establish that Y2a dominates Eurasian cattle generally or that Y2 is distributed in Africa; the African haplogroup mentioned in the Results is maternal T1, not Y2. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The divergence of Y3a from Y3b, as well as sub-haplogroups within indicine mitogenomes, occurred approximately 23,100-24,800 years ago, while South Asian indicine ancestry diverged from East Asian and African indicine ancestry approximately 10,300-40,100 and 11,800 years ago, respectively.

    “The divergence of Y3a from Y3b, as well as sub-haplogroups within indicine mitogenomes, occurred approximately 23,100–24,800 years ago, while South Asian indicine ancestry diverged from East Asian and African indicine ancestry approximately 10,300–40,100 and 11,800 years ago, respectively [9,10].”

    From The Genomic Landscape of Cattle: Domestication, Dispersal, and Adaptive Evolution (2026) · cites this paper as [9]

    Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 2 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 0 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

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  • The mtDNA I1 haplogroup and Y3b sub-haplogroup are widely distributed in India and other parts of the world, while Y3a sub-haplogroup predominates in southern China and Southeast Asia.

    “The mtDNA I1 haplogroup and Y3b sub-haplogroup are widely distributed in India and other parts of the world, while Y3a sub-haplogroup predominates in southern China and Southeast Asia [6,9,36,37].”

    From The Genomic Landscape of Cattle: Domestication, Dispersal, and Adaptive Evolution (2026) · cites this paper as [9]

    The Results section (Paternal and maternal phylogenetic analyses; page unavailable) says Y3a dominated cattle from South China and Y3b was mainly carried by three breeds of Indian origin. It identifies I1a within I1 in Chinese indicine cattle, but does not establish that I1 and Y3b are widely distributed in India and elsewhere, or that Y3a predominates in Southeast Asia. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [1]National Bureau of Statistics. China Statistical Yearbook 2016 (China Statistics Press, Beijing, 2016).
  2. [2]Vigne JD Peters J Helmer D The First Steps of Animal Domestication 2005 Oxford Oxbow Books

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Authors
Chen, N., Cai, Y., Chen, Q., Li, R., Wang, K., Huang, Y., Hu, S., Huang, S., Zhang, H., Zheng, Z., Song, W., Ma, Z., Ma, Y., Dang, R., Zhang, Z., Xu, L., Jia, Y., Liu, S., Yue, X., Deng, W., Zhang, X., Sun, Z., Lan, X., Han, J., Chen, H., Bradley, D. G., Jiang, Y., & Lei, C.
Affiliations
  • Northwest A&F University (CN)
  • Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN)
  • Yunnan University (CN)
  • Qinghai University (CN)
  • Ningxia University (CN)
  • Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
  • Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
  • National Beef Cattle Industrial Technology System (CN)
  • State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems (CN)
  • Yunnan Agricultural University (CN)
  • Kunming Institute of Zoology (CN)
  • Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
  • Trinity College Dublin (IE)
Corresponding author
  • Jiang, Yu
  • Lei, Chuzhao
Venue
Nature Communications
Published
2018-06-14
Volume
9
Issue
1
Pages
2337-2337
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2805177757
Cited by
403
References
60
Citations by year
2026: 26 · 2025: 49 · 2024: 66 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 52 · 2021: 74 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 12
FWCI
23.77
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Lanzhou University Institutional Repository (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Trinity's Access to Research Output (TARA) (Trinity College Dublin) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Natural Science Foundation of Qinghai Province of China
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (31501918)
  • Yunnan Modern Agriculture Beef Cattle Industry Technology System
  • National Thousand Youth Talents Plan
  • National Beef Cattle and Yak Industrial Technology System
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Forensic and Genetic Research
Keywords
cattle domestication, population ancestry, adaptive introgression, banteng, yak, Y-chromosome haplotypes
MeSH terms
Domestication, Animals, Breeding, Cattle, China, Chromosomes, Female, Genetics, Population, Geography, Haplotypes, Male, Mitochondria, Phylogeny, Species Specificity, Genetic Variation, Models, Statistical, Genome, Tibet, Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide

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