Dogs likely originated in the Middle East, new genetic data indicate

[FarCenter]

Public release date: 17-Mar-2010

Contact: Stuart Wolpert
[e-mail]
310-206-0511
University of California - Los Angeles

Dogs likely originated in the Middle East, not Asia or Europe, according to a new genetic analysis by an international team of scientists led by UCLA biologists. The research, funded by the National Science Foundation and the Searle Scholars Program, appears March 17 in the advance online edition of the journal Nature.

"Dogs seem to share more genetic similarity with Middle Eastern gray wolves than with any other wolf population worldwide," said Robert Wayne, UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior author of the Nature paper. "Genome-wide analysis now directly suggests a Middle East origin for modern dogs. We have found that a dominant proportion of modern dogs' ancestry derives from Middle Eastern wolves, and this finding is consistent with the hypothesis that dogs originated in the Middle East.

"This is the same area where domestic cats and many of our livestock originated and where agriculture first developed," Wayne noted.

Previous genetic research suggested an East Asian origin for dogs, "which was unexpected," Wayne said, "because there was never a hint in the archaeological record that dogs evolved there."

"We were able to study a broader sampling of wolves globally than has ever been done before, including Middle Eastern wolves," said the paper's lead author, Bridgett vonHoldt, a UCLA graduate student of ecology and evolutionary biology in Wayne's laboratory who studies the genetics of dog domestication. "In our analysis of the entire genome, we found that dogs share more unique markers with Middle Eastern wolves than with East Asian wolves. We used a genome-wide approach, which avoids the bias of single genome region."

The biologists report genetic data from more than 900 dogs from 85 breeds (including all the major ones) and more than 200 wild gray wolves (the ancestor of domestic dogs) worldwide, including populations from North America, Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. They used molecular genetic techniques to analyze more than 48,000 genetic markers. No previous study has ever analyzed anywhere near that many markers.

<SNIP>http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-03/uoc--dlo031610.php

[Deep13]

1. Not suprising, really.

Most domesticated animals did.

[Sebastian Doyle]

2. DOGS ARE TERRIRISTS!!111!!!1

WHY ELSE WOULD BAROKE HOOSAINE OSAMA HAVE ONE?2??2?? :crazy:

[unabelladonna]

4. wrong!!!!!

my dog barks in hebrew.

[Sebastian Doyle]

7. How the hell does he bark

...from right to left? :shrug:

[hex29a]

11. It sounds like KRAB KRAB KRAB

:silly:

[Xipe Totec]

3. Looks like we were barking up the wrong genealogical tree nt

[theoldman]

6. How about the domestic cats?

I think they also originated in the Middle East.

[theoldman]

5. This proves Noah's flood.

The wolves from the ark had puppies. Each puppy was a different breed and that is why we now have so many breeds. :) I will bet you money that this theory would win the approval of many people.

[Sebastian Doyle]

8. Don't forget that the Garden of Eden was in Iraq.

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers are mentioned in Genesis as the borders of the Garden.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. That explains why both of my dogs wear Burkhas.

I always wondered about that.

[UTUSN]

10. So, we're Jewish?!1 n/t

[undeterred]

12. In the doggie garden of eden

both dogs took a dump.