On the Origin of the Domestic Dog

Thomas Leitner, LANL, T-10

The origin of the domestic dog from wolves has been previously established. Here, I will discuss the number of founding events, as well as where and when these occurred inferred from molecular data. To address these questions we examined the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence variation among 654 domestic dogs representing all major populations worldwide. While there were several maternal origins from wolf, >95% of all sequences belonged to three phylogenetic groups universally represented at similar frequencies, suggesting a common origin from a single gene pool for all dog populations. A larger genetic variation in East Asia than in other regions and the pattern of phylogeographic variation suggest an East Asian origin for the domestic dog, ~15,000 years ago. In addition, the origin of the Australian Dingo will be discussed and some recent data from full-length mtDNA will be presented.

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