Ancient Mitochondrial Genomes Provide New Clues to the Origin of Domestic Cattle in China
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Cattle are one of the six livestock species that have occupied an important place in Chinese history. Previous ancient DNA studies have indicated that Chinese taurine cattle (Bos taurus taurus) are exotic, but the exact route and diffusion by which they were introduced to China is unknown. In this study, we extracted the mitochondrial genomes of 34 cases of ancient taurine cattle (from the late Neolithic to Qin and Han dynasties) excavated from sites in northern China and the eastern Eurasian steppe, and successfully obtained 14 mitochondrial genome sequences. The results of ancient DNA analysis reveal that with cultural exchange and trade, there was close genetic exchange between domestic taurine cattle in different regions. The haplotypes shared by domestic cattle have genetic continuity, reflecting the strong cultural influence of the large capital city sites such as Taosi, Shimao and Erlitou on the surrounding areas. This study suggests that ancient northern Chinese taurine cattle may have accompanied the westward transmission of agricultural or painted pottery culture and thus had a maternal genetic contribution to modern Tibetan cattle.
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They entered Mongolia and northern China, before spreading from Northeast China to Japan via the Korean Peninsula.
“They entered Mongolia and northern China [58], before spreading from Northeast China to Japan via the Korean Peninsula.”
From The Genomic Landscape of Cattle: Domestication, Dispersal, and Adaptive Evolution (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
The Discussion reports that T4 cattle spread from the Eurasian steppe to China and identifies ancient T4 cattle in the eastern Eurasian steppe and northern China. It does not establish that they entered Mongolia specifically. The Japan-via-Korea clause follows the citation and is not judged here. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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References 32 · Cited by 8
Research works printed but not linked: 12
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- Authors
- Zhang, N., Shao, X., Guo, Y., Zhang, X., Zhou, Y., Yuan, J., Tang, Z., Hu, S., Minyaev, S. S., & Cai, D.
- Affiliations
- Jilin University (CN)
- University of Southampton (GB)
- Zhengzhou University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CN)
- Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Xi’an 710054, China
- Russian Academy of Sciences (RU)
- Corresponding author
- Cai, Dawei
- ORCID
- Venue
- Genes
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2023-06-22
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1313
- ISSN
- 2073-4425 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10379582
- OpenAlex
- W4381804458
- Cited by
- 8
- References
- 32
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1
- FWCI
- 1.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Genes (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Major Projects of the National Social Science Foundation of China (17ZDA221, 22JJD780009, 2020YFC1521606, 2022CXTD17)
- Major Projects of Key Research Bases of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education of China (17ZDA221, 22JJD780009, 2020YFC1521606, 2022CXTD17)
- National Key Research and Development Program of China (17ZDA221, 22JJD780009, 2020YFC1521606, 2022CXTD17)
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (17ZDA221, 22JJD780009, 2020YFC1521606, 2022CXTD17)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Forensic and Genetic Research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Keywords
- cattle, taurine cattle, mitochondrial genome, ancient DNA, cattle domestication, Eurasian steppe, Neolithic, cultural exchange, genetic continuity
- MeSH terms
- DNA, Ancient, Animals, Cattle, China, DNA, Mitochondrial, Phylogeny, Genetic Variation, Genome, Mitochondrial
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