Inference of Admixture Origins in Indigenous African Cattle
Open accessAbstract
Present-day African cattle retain a unique genetic profile composed of a mixture of the Bos taurus and Bos indicus populations introduced into the continent at different time periods. However, details of the admixture history and the exact origins of the source populations remain obscure. Here, we infer the source of admixture in the earliest domestic cattle in Africa, African taurine. We detect a significant contribution (up to ∼20%) from a basal taurine lineage, which might represent the now-extinct African aurochs. In addition, we show that the indicine ancestry of African cattle, although most closely related to so-far sampled North Indian indicine breeds, has a small amount of additional genetic affinity to Southeast Asian indicine breeds. Our findings support the hypothesis of aurochs introgression into African taurine and generate a novel hypothesis that the origin of indicine ancestry in Africa might be different indicine populations than the ones found in North India today.
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The indicine ancestry in African cattle does not entirely correspond with northern Indian zebu cattle, but shows similarities to Southeast Asian zebu cattle, indicating exchanges between zebu cattle introduced to Africa and Southeast Asian herds in the expansion.
“Notably, the indicine ancestry in African cattle does not entirely correspond with northern Indian zebu cattle, but shows similarities to Southeast Asian zebu cattle, which indicates exchanges between zebu cattle introduced to Africa and Southeast Asian herds in the expansion [46,47].”
From The Genomic Landscape of Cattle: Domestication, Dispersal, and Adaptive Evolution (2026) · cites this paper as [46]
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredAncient Moroccan wild ox samples exhibit a closer kinship to the African taurine ancestry than to the European taurine ancestry, while African taurine cattle possess ~20% ancestry attributed to African aurochs.
“Ancient Moroccan wild ox samples exhibit a closer kinship to the African taurine ancestry than to the European taurine ancestry, while African taurine cattle possess ~20% ancestry attributed to African aurochs, providing a genetic signature distinct from their European counterparts [46].”
From The Genomic Landscape of Cattle: Domestication, Dispersal, and Adaptive Evolution (2026) · cites this paper as [46]
The Results section reports that Moroccan aurochs have the highest genetic affinity with the African taurine breeds Muturu and N’Dama, and the Discussion says they have higher affinity with African than Eurasian taurines. The paper estimates roughly 10–20% admixture from a basal taurine lineage, but the Discussion explicitly says African aurochs introgression is unlikely to explain all of that signal. It therefore does not establish that the full ~20% came from African aurochs. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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- Authors
- Kim, K., Kim, D., Hanotte, O., Lee, C., Kim, H., & Jeong, C.
- Affiliations
- Seoul National University (KR)
- Roslin Institute (GB)
- The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kim, Heebal
- Jeong, Choongwon
- Venue
- Molecular Biology and Evolution
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2023-11-23
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 12
- ISSN
- 0737-4038 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-1719
- PMC
- PMC10701095
- OpenAlex
- W4388928526
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 4
- FWCI
- 3.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Molecular Biology and Evolution (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Repository@Nottingham (University of Nottingham) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Repository@Nottingham (University of Nottingham) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- The Mouseion at the JAXlibrary (Jackson Laboratory) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Seoul National University Open Repository (Seoul National University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (OPP1127286, INV—040641)
- Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health
- University of Edinburgh
- SRUC
- International Livestock Research Institute
- Jackson Laboratory Postdoctoral Scholar Award
- National Research Foundation of Korea (2023-00212640, NRF-2021R1A2C2094111)
- 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
- African cattle, cattle, Bos indicus, introgression, cattle genomics
- MeSH terms
- Africa, Animals, Breeding, Cattle, Genetics, Population, India
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