Origin of prehistoric cattle excavated from four archaeological sites in central and northeastern Thailand

Cattle have been domesticated in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, for thousands of years, but the history of cattle domestication in the region remains unclear. To date, only genetic studies of modern Thai cattle DNA have been reported. To gain some insight into cattle domestication in the country, a total of 56 cattle remains excavated from four archaeological sites (dated to between 3550 and 1700 years before present (YBP)) in northeastern and central Thailand were analysed in this study. Of 56, the 157-bp D-loop fragment was successfully generated from 26 samples, all of which belonged to Bos taurus in haplogroup T/T3. One haplotype contained 19 members from all four archaeological sites and clustered with the ancient B. taurus from Iran, Turkey and China. Other haplotypes have not shared haplotype with B. taurus from other countries but they showed close relationship to those from China. This represents the first genetic evidence that B. taurus was domesticated in Thailand between 3550 and 1700 YBP. In addition, the close relationship among ancient Thai, Iranian and Chinese taurines suggests that cattle from the Near East were introduced into North China, and were subsequently brought into Thailand thousands of years ago.

牛在包括泰国在内的东南亚地区已被驯化数千年，但该区域的牛类驯化历史仍不明朗。截至目前，仅见针对泰国现代牛类DNA的遗传学研究报道。为深入探究泰国境内的牛类驯化历程，本研究对泰国东北部及中部4处考古遗址（年代介于距今3550至1700年，即YBP）出土的56件牛类遗存展开分析。在全部56件遗存中，26个样本成功扩增出长度为157碱基对（bp）的D环（D-loop）片段，所有样本均隶属于单倍群T/T3的普通牛（Bos taurus）。其中1种单倍型包含来自全部4处考古遗址的19个样本，该单倍型与伊朗、土耳其及中国的古代普通牛聚为一支。其余单倍型未与其他国家的普通牛共享单倍型，但与中国的普通牛单倍型亲缘关系较为密切。本研究首次提供遗传学证据，证明普通牛于距今3550至1700年的时段内在泰国完成驯化。此外，泰国、伊朗与中国古代普通牛之间的紧密亲缘关系表明，源自近东的家牛先传入中国北方，随后于数千年前传入泰国。