Data from: Insights into the genetic history of French cattle from dense SNP data on 47 worldwide breeds

BACKGROUND: Modern cattle originate from populations of the wild extinct
aurochs through a few domestication events which occurred about 8,000
years ago. Newly domesticated populations subsequently spread worldwide
following breeder migration routes. The resulting complex historical
origins associated with both natural and artificial selection have led to
the differentiation of numerous different cattle breeds displaying a broad
phenotypic variety over a short period of time. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
FINDINGS: This study gives a detailed assessment of cattle genetic
diversity based on 1,121 individuals sampled in 47 populations from
different parts of the world (with a special focus on French cattle)
genotyped for 44,706 autosomal SNPs. The analyzed data set consisted of
new genotypes for 296 individuals representing 14 French cattle breeds
which were combined to those available from three previously published
studies. After characterizing SNP polymorphism in the different
populations, we performed a detailed analysis of genetic structure at both
the individual and population levels. We further searched for spatial
patterns of genetic diversity among 23 European populations, most of them
being of French origin, under the recently developed spatial Principal
Component analysis framework. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Overall, such high
throughput genotyping data confirmed a clear partitioning of the cattle
genetic diversity into distinct breeds. In addition, patterns of
differentiation among the three main groups of populations—the African
taurine, the European taurine and zebus—may provide some additional
support for three distinct domestication centres. Finally, among the
European cattle breeds investigated, spatial patterns of genetic diversity
were found in good agreement with the two main migration routes towards
France, initially postulated based on archeological evidence.