Signatures of human-commensalism in the house sparrow genome

House sparrows (Passer domesticus) are a hugely successful anthrodependent species; occurring on nearly every continent. Yet, despite their ubiquity and familiarity to humans, surprisingly little is known about their origins. We sought to investigate the evolutionary history of the house sparrow and identify the processes involved in its transition to a human-commensal niche. We used a whole genome resequencing dataset of 120 individuals from three Eurasian species, including three populations of Bactrianus sparrows, a non-commensal, divergent house sparrow lineage occurring in the Near East. Coalescent modelling supports a split between house and Bactrianus sparrow 11 Kya and an expansion in the house sparrow at 6 Kya, consistent with the spread of agriculture following the Neolithic revolution. Commensal house sparrows therefore likely moved into Europe with the spread of agriculture following this period. Using the Bactrianus sparrow as a proxy for a pre-commensal, ancestral house po...家麻雀（Passer domesticus）是一类极为成功的依附人类生存的物种类群，几乎遍布全球各大陆。尽管家麻雀随处可见且与人类生活息息相关，但学界对其起源却知之甚少。本研究旨在探究家麻雀的演化历史，并厘清其向人类伴生生态位过渡的相关过程。我们使用了来自3个欧亚物种种群的120个个体的全基因组重测序（whole genome resequencing）数据集，其中包含3个巴丹麻雀（Bactrianus sparrows）种群——该类群为分布于近东地区的非伴生、高度分化的家麻雀支系。溯祖模型（coalescent modelling）分析结果显示，家麻雀与巴丹麻雀约在11千年前发生分化，家麻雀种群在6千年前出现扩张，这与新石器革命之后的农业传播进程相符。因此，伴随人类在该时期之后的农业扩张，伴生型家麻雀也随之扩散至欧洲大陆。以巴丹麻雀作为前伴生阶段的家麻雀祖先类群的替代类群……