aDNA sequencing of Galician cattle mitochondrial genomes

Domestic cattle were brought to Spain by early settlers and agricultural societies. Dueto missing Neolithic sites in the Spanish region of Galicia, very little is known aboutthis process in this region. We sampled 18 cattle subfossils from different ages anddifferent mountain caves in Galicia, of which 11 were subject to sequencing of themitochondrial genome and phylogenetic analysis, to provide insight into theintroduction of cattle to this region. We detected high similarity between samples from different time periods and were able to compare the time frame of the first domesticatedcattle in Galicia to data from the connecting region of Cantabria to show a plausibleconnection between the Neolithization of these two regions. Our data shows a closerelationship of the early domesticated cattle of Galicia and modern cow breeds andgives a general insight into cattle phylogeny. We conclude that settlers migrated to thisregion of Spain from Europe and introduced common European breeds to Galicia.

早期定居者与农业社会将家牛引入西班牙。但因西班牙加利西亚地区缺乏新石器时代遗址，学界对该区域家牛的引入过程所知甚少。本研究采集了加利西亚地区不同年代、出自不同山地洞穴的18份牛亚化石样本，其中11份完成了线粒体基因组测序与系统发育分析，以期厘清该区域家牛的引入历程。研究发现不同年代的样本间具有高度相似性，并将加利西亚首批驯化家牛的时间框架与毗连的坎塔布里亚地区的数据进行对比，结果显示两地的新石器化进程存在合理关联。本研究数据表明，加利西亚早期驯化家牛与现代家牛品种亲缘关系紧密，同时为牛类系统发育研究提供了整体视角。本研究最终推断，定居者从欧洲迁徙至西班牙加利西亚地区，并将常见的欧洲家牛品种引入此地。