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Three Thousand Years of Continuity in the Maternal Lineages of Ancient Sheep (Ovis aries) in Estonia

Although sheep (Ovis aries) have been one of the most exploited domestic animals in Estonia since the Late Bronze Age, relatively little is known about their genetic history. Here, we explore temporal changes in Estonian sheep populations and their mitochondrial genetic diversity over the last 3000...

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Autores principales: Rannamäe, Eve, Lõugas, Lembi, Speller, Camilla F., Valk, Heiki, Maldre, Liina, Wilczyński, Jarosław, Mikhailov, Aleksandr, Saarma, Urmas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5061334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27732668
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0163676
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author Rannamäe, Eve
Lõugas, Lembi
Speller, Camilla F.
Valk, Heiki
Maldre, Liina
Wilczyński, Jarosław
Mikhailov, Aleksandr
Saarma, Urmas
author_facet Rannamäe, Eve
Lõugas, Lembi
Speller, Camilla F.
Valk, Heiki
Maldre, Liina
Wilczyński, Jarosław
Mikhailov, Aleksandr
Saarma, Urmas
author_sort Rannamäe, Eve
collection PubMed
description Although sheep (Ovis aries) have been one of the most exploited domestic animals in Estonia since the Late Bronze Age, relatively little is known about their genetic history. Here, we explore temporal changes in Estonian sheep populations and their mitochondrial genetic diversity over the last 3000 years. We target a 558 base pair fragment of the mitochondrial hypervariable region in 115 ancient sheep from 71 sites in Estonia (c. 1200 BC–AD 1900s), 19 ancient samples from Latvia, Russia, Poland and Greece (6800 BC–AD 1700), as well as 44 samples of modern Kihnu native sheep breed. Our analyses revealed: (1) 49 mitochondrial haplotypes, associated with sheep haplogroups A and B; (2) high haplotype diversity in Estonian ancient sheep; (3) continuity in mtDNA haplotypes through time; (4) possible population expansion during the first centuries of the Middle Ages (associated with the establishment of the new power regime related to 13(th) century crusades); (5) significant difference in genetic diversity between ancient populations and modern native sheep, in agreement with the beginning of large-scale breeding in the 19(th) century and population decline in local sheep. Overall, our results suggest that in spite of the observed fluctuations in ancient sheep populations, and changes in the natural and historical conditions, the utilisation of local sheep has been constant in the territory of Estonia, displaying matrilineal continuity from the Middle Bronze Age through the Modern Period, and into modern native sheep.
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spelling pubmed-50613342016-10-27 Three Thousand Years of Continuity in the Maternal Lineages of Ancient Sheep (Ovis aries) in Estonia Rannamäe, Eve Lõugas, Lembi Speller, Camilla F. Valk, Heiki Maldre, Liina Wilczyński, Jarosław Mikhailov, Aleksandr Saarma, Urmas PLoS One Research Article Although sheep (Ovis aries) have been one of the most exploited domestic animals in Estonia since the Late Bronze Age, relatively little is known about their genetic history. Here, we explore temporal changes in Estonian sheep populations and their mitochondrial genetic diversity over the last 3000 years. We target a 558 base pair fragment of the mitochondrial hypervariable region in 115 ancient sheep from 71 sites in Estonia (c. 1200 BC–AD 1900s), 19 ancient samples from Latvia, Russia, Poland and Greece (6800 BC–AD 1700), as well as 44 samples of modern Kihnu native sheep breed. Our analyses revealed: (1) 49 mitochondrial haplotypes, associated with sheep haplogroups A and B; (2) high haplotype diversity in Estonian ancient sheep; (3) continuity in mtDNA haplotypes through time; (4) possible population expansion during the first centuries of the Middle Ages (associated with the establishment of the new power regime related to 13(th) century crusades); (5) significant difference in genetic diversity between ancient populations and modern native sheep, in agreement with the beginning of large-scale breeding in the 19(th) century and population decline in local sheep. Overall, our results suggest that in spite of the observed fluctuations in ancient sheep populations, and changes in the natural and historical conditions, the utilisation of local sheep has been constant in the territory of Estonia, displaying matrilineal continuity from the Middle Bronze Age through the Modern Period, and into modern native sheep. Public Library of Science 2016-10-12 /pmc/articles/PMC5061334/ /pubmed/27732668 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0163676 Text en © 2016 Rannamäe et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Rannamäe, Eve
Lõugas, Lembi
Speller, Camilla F.
Valk, Heiki
Maldre, Liina
Wilczyński, Jarosław
Mikhailov, Aleksandr
Saarma, Urmas
Three Thousand Years of Continuity in the Maternal Lineages of Ancient Sheep (Ovis aries) in Estonia
title Three Thousand Years of Continuity in the Maternal Lineages of Ancient Sheep (Ovis aries) in Estonia
title_full Three Thousand Years of Continuity in the Maternal Lineages of Ancient Sheep (Ovis aries) in Estonia
title_fullStr Three Thousand Years of Continuity in the Maternal Lineages of Ancient Sheep (Ovis aries) in Estonia
title_full_unstemmed Three Thousand Years of Continuity in the Maternal Lineages of Ancient Sheep (Ovis aries) in Estonia
title_short Three Thousand Years of Continuity in the Maternal Lineages of Ancient Sheep (Ovis aries) in Estonia
title_sort three thousand years of continuity in the maternal lineages of ancient sheep (ovis aries) in estonia
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5061334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27732668
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0163676
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