Maternal genetic and phylogenetic characteristics of domesticated cattle in northwestern China
Open accessAbstract
Northwestern China, an important part of the Silk Road, was the birthplace of the Zhouzu farming culture. The domestication of cattle as an important aspect of farming culture has had a long history in northwestern China. In this study, we assessed the maternal structure and phylogeny of cattle by analyzing the mitochondrial DNA hypervariable segment I (HVS-I) in 698 native cattle from eight areas of northwestern China. The phylogenetic analyses revealed two highly divergent mtDNA clades: clade T, which had four sub-clades (Ta-Td), and clade I. The cattle domesticated from Bos taurus showed a clear dominant distribution pattern in northwestern China. The nucleotide diversity of the Bos indicus clade was lower than that of clades from Bos taurus. In summary, our results suggest that the native cattle of northwestern China were domesticated from two different maternal ancestors, Bos taurus and Bos indicus, which migrated to the central plains of China from the north and south, respectively, with Bos taurus remaining at the edges of the region. The population expansion of the cattle domesticated from Bos taurus occurred in the Longdong region of Gansu Province, and these cattle formed four relatively independent evolutionary branches. Subsequent to this expansion event, Bos indicus migrated from southern to northern China.
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Zebu cattle reached the Central Plains of China around 3500 years ago, forming a convergence zone of taurine and zebu cattle.
“Zebu cattle reached the Central Plains of China around 3500 years ago, forming a convergence zone of taurine and zebu cattle [55,62,63].”
From The Genomic Landscape of Cattle: Domestication, Dispersal, and Adaptive Evolution (2026) · cites this paper as [63]
The Discussion (Maternal structures of native cattle in northwest China; page unavailable) describes areas near Central China as an intersection of taurine and indicine cattle, including hybrids. It does not date zebu cattle’s arrival in the Central Plains to around 3500 years ago. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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- Authors
- Cai, Y., Jiao, T., Lei, Z., Liu, L., & Zhao, S.
- Affiliations
- Gansu Agricultural University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Zhao, Shengguo
- Venue
- PLOS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2018-12-27
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- e0209645
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6307701
- OpenAlex
- W2908077115
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 0.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Discipline construction fund project of Gansu Agricultural University (GAU-XKJS-2018-048)
- 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
- maternal ancestry, mitochondrial DNA, hypervariable region 1, cattle, Bos indicus, cattle domestication, population growth, phylogeography, indigenous cattle breeds, Northwest China, Silk Road
- MeSH terms
- Maternal Inheritance, Animals, Animals, Domestic, Cattle, China, DNA, Mitochondrial, Female, Genetics, Population, Genotype, Phylogeny, Genetic Variation, Phylogeography
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