Data from: Capturing goats: documenting two hundred years of mitochondrial DNA diversity among goat populations from Britain and Ireland

The domestic goat (Capra hircus) plays a key role in global agriculture, being especially prized in regions of marginal pasture. However, the advent of industrialized breeding has seen a dramatic reduction in genetic diversity within commercial populations, while high extinction rates among feral herds have further depleted the reservoir of genetic variation available. Here, we present the first survey of whole mitochondrial genomic variation among the modern and historical goat populations of Britain and Ireland using a combination of mtDNA enrichment and high throughput sequencing (HTS). Fifteen historical taxidermy samples, representing the indigenous ‘Old Goat’ populations of the islands, were sequenced alongside five modern Irish dairy goats and four feral samples from endangered populations in western Ireland. Phylogenetic and network analyses of European mitochondrial variation revealed distinct groupings dominated by historical British and Irish samples, which demonstrate a degree of maternal genetic structure between the goats of insular and continental Europe. Several Irish modern feral samples also fall within these clusters, suggesting continuity between these dwindling populations and the ancestral ‘Old Goats’ of Ireland and Britain.

家养山羊（Capra hircus）在全球农业中发挥着关键作用，在边际牧场区域尤为珍贵。然而，随着集约化育种的普及，商业种群的遗传多样性急剧下降；与此同时，野化种群的高灭绝率进一步耗尽了可利用的遗传变异库。本研究首次结合线粒体DNA（mtDNA）富集技术与高通量测序（HTS），对英国与爱尔兰境内现代及历史山羊种群的全线粒体基因组变异情况开展了系统性调查。研究共对15份代表不列颠群岛本土“古老山羊”种群的馆藏剥制标本进行测序，同时纳入5份现代爱尔兰奶山羊样本，以及4份采自爱尔兰西部濒危野化山羊种群的样本。针对欧洲线粒体变异的系统发育与网络分析结果显示，以英爱历史山羊样本为主的类群形成了显著分化，表明岛屿种群与欧洲大陆山羊之间存在一定程度的母系遗传结构。多份爱尔兰现代野化山羊样本也归入上述类群，这暗示这些日渐式微的野化种群与英爱本土“古老山羊”祖先之间存在遗传延续性。