Washington, Nov 24 (ANI): As opposed to previous theories that the cradle of the canine line lies in the Middle East, researchers have claimed in a new study that there is "very strong evidence" that the wolf ancestors of today's domesticated dogs can be traced to southern East Asia.
According to Peter Savolainen from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, an Asian region south of the Yangtze River was the principal and probably sole region where wolves were domesticated by humans.
Data on genetics, morphology and behaviour clearly shows that dogs have descended from wolves, but there has never been a scientific consensus on where in the world the domestication process began.
"Our analysis of Y-chromosomal DNA now confirms that wolves were first domesticated in Asia south of Yangtze River - we call it the ASY region - in southern China or Southeast Asia," Savolainen said.
The Y data supports previous evidence from mitochondrial DNA.
"Taken together, the two studies provide very strong evidence that dogs originated in the ASY region," he said.
Archaeological data and a genetic study recently published suggest that dogs originate from the Middle East, but Savolainen rejects that view "because none of these studies included samples from the ASY region, evidence from ASY has been overlooked.
Savolainen and PhD student Mattias Oskarsson worked with Chinese colleagues to analyse DNA from male dogs around the world.
Approximately half of the gene pool was universally shared everywhere in the world, while only the ASY region had the entire range of genetic diversity.
"This shows that gene pools in all other regions of the world most probably originate from the ASY region.
"Our results confirm that Asia south of the Yangtze River was the most important - and probably the only - region for wolf domestication, and that a large number of wolves were domesticated," he added.
The study has been published in the scientific journal Heredity. (ANI)
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