Genetic Evidence for an East Asian Origin of Domestic Dogs
Abstract
The origin of the domestic dog from wolves has been established, but the number of founding events, as well as where and when these occurred, is not known. To address these questions, we examined the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence variation among 654 domestic dogs representing all major dog populations worldwide. Although our data indicate several maternal origins from wolf, >95% of all sequences belonged to three phylogenetic groups universally represented at similar frequencies, suggesting a common origin from a single gene pool for all dog populations. A larger genetic variation in East Asia than in other regions and the pattern of phylogeographic variation suggest an East Asian origin for the domestic dog, ∼15,000 years ago.
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Since 2002, the locus for the domestic dog has been changing with each new genetic study, from East Asia to eastern Africa to the Middle East and back to East Asia, but since 2012, southern (greater) China has become the likelier locus.
“Since 2002, the locus for the domestic dog has been changing with each new genetic study, from East Asia (Savolainen et al. 2002) to eastern Africa (Boyko et al. 2009) to the Middle East (VonHoldt et al. 2010) and back to East Asia (Pang et al. 2009), but since 2012, southern (greater) China has become the likelier locus (Ding et al. 2012).”
From The Dog-Eared Dictionary: Human-Animal Alliance in Chinese Civilization (2015) · cites this paper as Savolainen et al. 2002
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- Authors
- Savolainen, P., Zhang, Y.-P., Luo, J., Lundeberg, J., & Leitner, T.
- Affiliations
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology (SE)
- Kunming Institute of Zoology (CN)
- Swedish Institute (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Savolainen, Peter
- Luo, Jing
- Venue
- Science
- Published
- 2002-11-22
- Volume
- 298
- Issue
- 5598
- Pages
- 1610-1613
- ISSN
- 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-9203
- OpenAlex
- W2081901919
- Cited by
- 960
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 37 · 2016: 53 · 2015: 52 · 2014: 52 · 2013: 51 · 2012: 66
- FWCI
- 18.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Human-Animal Interaction Studies
- 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
- dog domestication, mitochondrial DNA, phylogeography, maternal lineage, East Asian origin, genetic variation, dog population, founder events
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Animals, Domestic, Archaeology, Asia, DNA, Mitochondrial, Dogs, Female, Gene Pool, Genes, Haplotypes, Molecular Sequence Data, Phylogeny, Time, Genetic Variation, Wolves
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