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Journal article
Ancient genomes reveal over two thousand years of dingo population structure
National Academy of Sciences. Proceedings, Vol.121(30), pp.1-12
2024
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UniSC News (Clare McKay)Abstract
Dingoes are culturally and ecologically important free-living canids whose ancestors arrived in Australia over 3,000 B.P., likely transported by seafaring people. However, the early history of dingoes in Australia—including the number of founding populations and their routes of introduction—remains uncertain. This uncertainty arises partly from the complex and poorly understood relationship between modern dingoes and New Guinea singing dogs, and suspicions that post-Colonial hybridization has introduced recent domestic dog ancestry into the genomes of many wild dingo populations. In this study, we analyzed genome-wide data from nine ancient dingo specimens ranging in age from 400 to 2,746 y old, predating the introduction of domestic dogs to Australia by European colonists. We uncovered evidence that the continent-wide population structure observed in modern dingo populations had already emerged several thousand years ago. We also detected excess allele sharing between New Guinea singing dogs and ancient dingoes from coastal New South Wales (NSW) compared to ancient dingoes from southern Australia, irrespective of any post-Colonial hybrid ancestry in the genomes of modern individuals. Our results are consistent with several demographic scenarios, including a scenario where the ancestry of dingoes from the east coast of Australia results from at least two waves of migration from source populations with varying affinities to New Guinea singing dogs. We also contribute to the growing body of evidence that modern dingoes derive little genomic ancestry from post-Colonial hybridization with other domestic dog lineages, instead descending primarily from ancient canids introduced to Sahul thousands of years ago.
Details
- Title
- Ancient genomes reveal over two thousand years of dingo population structure
- Authors
- Yassine Souilmi (Corresponding Author) - The University of AdelaideSally Wasef (Corresponding Author) - Queensland University of TechnologyMatthew P. Williams - Pennsylvania State UniversityGabriel Conroy - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and EngineeringIdo Bar - Griffith UniversityPere Bover - Universidad de ZaragozaJackson Dann - The University of AdelaideHolly Heiniger - The University of AdelaideBastien Llamas - The University of AdelaideSteven Ogbourne - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Centre for BioinnovationMichael Archer - Environmental Earth SciencesJ. William O. Ballard - The University of MelbourneElizabeth Reed - The University of AdelaideRaymond Tobler - The University of AdelaideLoukas Koungoulos - Australian National UniversityKeryn Walshe - University of AucklandJoanne L. Wright - Queensland Department of EducationJane Balme - The University of Western AustraliaSue O’Connor - Australian National UniversityAlan Cooper (Corresponding Author) - Charles Sturt UniversityKieren J. Mitchell (Corresponding Author) - The University of Adelaide
- Publication details
- National Academy of Sciences. Proceedings, Vol.121(30), pp.1-12
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1073/pnas.2407584121
- ISSN
- 1091-6490; 0027-8424
- Copyright note
- © 2024 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
- Data Availability
- The DNA sequencing reads generated for this study have been deposited in the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) (PRJEB75610) (95). Mitochondrial genome consensus sequences constructed from these data are available on GenBank (PP812314-PP812321 & PP812323-PP812333) (96). Genotype files and other supplementary data are available on Figshare (DOI: https://doi.org/10.25909/25885747)
- Grants
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Centre for Bioinnovation
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991048896802621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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