Evolutionary History of Ancient Domestic Dogs from the Atlantic Patagonia

• Grant number: 24/10781-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Animal Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Tábita Hünemeier
• Grantee: Gabriel Monteiro Lauria
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/06860-8 - Tracking evolutionary changes in pre- and post-contact America using time-series genomic data, AP.JP2

Abstract

The population history of Native American dogs is little known, as the arrival of European colonizers resulted in their mass extinction. However, it is known that they originated on the Eurasian continent and that their presence in the Americas can be traced back without controversy to approximately 10,000 years ago. The canine presence on the continent would therefore be a direct consequence of human dispersion. In South America, the presence of dogs becomes more common around 3,500 years Before Present (BP), especially in Andean societies; however, outside this context, their record decreases significantly. In the entire region encompassing the territories of Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and part of southern Brazil, pre-contact dogs were identified in only 24 archaeological sites of hunter-gatherer groups dating from 2,400 to 900 BP. Given this panorama, new remains are being discovered on the South American continent, among them the discovery of a dog (Canis familiaris) at an archaeological site on the southern coast of Lake Colhué Huapi in Central Patagonia. Shortly after this discovery, six other individuals with similar morphologies were identified in pre-existing collections. These seven individuals had their DNA extracted and sequenced in collaboration with California State University, and the analysis of the data obtained from these sequences is part of the scope of this master's project.Our objective is to analyze the ancestry and genetic diversity of the individuals found at Lake Colhué Huapi in order to determine their origin and incorporate them into the historical context of migrations and interactions between different human populations in South America. We will achieve this through the following objectives: to determine the origin and ancestry of the individuals found and relate them to other ancient canine populations; to determine whether or not there is admixture with European dogs in the more recent individuals; and to establish the demography of the canid population of the Atlantic Patagonia and the impact of European colonization on this population. We will conduct these analyses through Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and F3 statistics between the individuals and a canid database compiled from publicly available data.It is worth noting that these original data belong to the southernmost archaeological samples of canids found in the Americas. In this context, the determination of the American origin of these individuals would be a unique finding in the evolutionary history of American canid populations, as well as elucidating the relationship between the various human populations in the region.