为了分析狗的遗传起源，研究人员首先对德国考古遗址发现的两只新石器时代狗的遗传信息进行测序分析，一只大约7000岁，另一只4700岁。然后他们将在爱尔兰发现的5000年前的狗和5649只现代狗和狼的遗传物质与这两只新石器时代的狗的遗传物质进行比较分析，结果表明所有的现代狗都来自于40000年前在欧洲驯养的单一狼群。

康奈尔大学的遗传学教授Adam Boyko在寄给华盛顿邮报的一封邮件中说道：“鉴于这些古代样本和现代样本之间的遗传标记高度一致，可以判定这些狗是由一个单一种群进化来的。”

这一结果与去年科学杂志发表的文章相矛盾，该文章认为现代狗是由欧洲和东亚不同的狼群驯化而来。斯坦福大学的Greger Larson教授指出最新研究并没有否定现代狗来自两个种群的可能性，也没有对这一严重分歧做出合理解释。

石溪大学博士后研究员Laura Botigué提到基因检测技术分析古老标本还是一个新的领域，想要解决现代狗在何时何地受到驯化这一问题，还需要更多不同地区的古老标本。

Nat Commun. 2017 Jul 18;8:16082. doi: 10.1038/ncomms16082.

Ancient European dog genomes revealcontinuity since the Early Neolithic.

Botigué LR1, Song S2, Scheu A3,4, Gopalan S1, Pendleton AL5, Oetjens M5, Taravella AM5, Seregély T6, Zeeb-Lanz A7, Arbogast RM8, Bobo D1, Daly K4,Unterländer M3, Burger J3, Kidd JM2,5, Veeramah KR1.

Author information

1 Department of Ecologyand Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-5245, USA.

2 Department ofComputational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,Michigan 48109, USA.

3 PalaeogeneticsGroup, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany.

4 SmurfitInstitute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.

5 Department ofHuman Genetics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.

6 Department ofPrehistoric Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, Heritage Sciences and ArtHistory, University of Bamberg, 96045 Bamberg, Germany.

7 GeneraldirektionKulturelles Erbe Rheinland-Pfalz, Direktion Landesarchäologie, AußenstelleSpeyer, 67346 Speyer, Germany.

8 CNRSUMR 7044-UDS, 5 Allée du Général Rouvillois F 67083 Strasbourg, France.

Abstract

Europe has playeda major role in dog evolution, harbouring the oldest uncontested Palaeolithicremains and having been the centre of modern dog breed creation. Here wesequence the genomes of an Early and End Neolithic dog from Germany, includinga sample associated with an early European farming community.Both dogs demonstrate continuity with each other and predominantlyshare ancestry with modern European dogs, contradicting a previouslysuggested Late Neolithic population replacement. We find no genetic evidence tosupport the recent hypothesis proposing dual origins of dog domestication. Bycalibrating the mutation rate using our oldest dog, we narrow the timing of dogdomestication to 20,000-40,000 years ago. Interestingly, we do not observe theextreme copy number expansion of the AMY2B gene characteristic ofmodern dogs that has previously been proposed as an adaptation to astarch-rich diet driven by the widespread adoption of agriculture in the Neolithic.

本文（翻译）撰写  中国医学科学院医学实验动物研究所  比较医学研究中心  张元慧