Ancient genomes revisit the ancestry of domestic and Przewalski’s horses

2018/02/22 by Charleen Gaunitz, Antoine Fages, Kristian Hanghøj +44 · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Genetic diversity and population structure #Forensic and Genetic Research #Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock

paper · doi:10.1126/science.aao3297

openalex publication_date 2018/02/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

The Eneolithic Botai culture of the Central Asian steppes provides the earliest archaeological evidence for horse husbandry, ~5500 years ago, but the exact nature of early horse domestication remains controversial. We generated 42 ancient-horse genomes, including 20 from Botai. Compared to 46 published ancient- and modern-horse genomes, our data indicate that Przewalski's horses are the feral descendants of horses herded at Botai and not truly wild horses. All domestic horses dated from ~4000 years ago to present only show ~2.7% of Botai-related ancestry. This indicates that a massive genomic turnover underpins the expansion of the horse stock that gave rise to modern domesticates, which coincides with large-scale human population expansions during the Early Bronze Age.

Citations

• Effective population size and patterns of molecular evolution and variation
• Ancient DNA reveals traces of Iberian Neolithic and Bronze Age lineages in modern Iberian horses
• A missense mutation in the gene for melanocyte-stimulating hormone receptor (MCIR) is associated with the chestnut coat color in horses
• The Earliest Horse Harnessing and Milking
• Genome Sequence, Comparative Analysis, and Population Genetics of the Domestic Horse
• Massive migration from the steppe is a source for Indo-European languages in Europe
• Ancient DNA provides new insights into the history of south Siberian Kurgan people
• Bayesian Analysis of Radiocarbon Dates
• Tracking the origins of Yakutian horses and the genetic basis for their fast adaptation to subarctic environments

Cited by

• Early evidence for horse utilization in the Eurasian steppes and the case of the Novoil’inovskiy 2 Cemetery in Kazakhstan
• Horse [wikipedia]