近日，Heredity发表了中国科学院昆明动物研究所张亚平院士研究组与瑞典皇家理工学院Peter Savolainen教授研究组的合作研究成果，该研究首次基于父系遗传证据证明了现代家犬的东亚南部起源，支持线粒体母系遗传的研究结果。
过去基于母系遗传的分子标记线粒体DNA（mtDNA）的研究表明，全世界的家犬都主要由亚洲长江以南的灰狼驯化而来。另一方面，考古学和常染色体SNP的研究结果却支持家犬起源于欧洲或西亚。但是，由于常染色体SNP研究缺乏长江以南这一关键地区的数据，其结论难以令人信服。因此，增加新的分子标记对世界范围内包括亚洲长江以南的家犬样品进行研究，对于验证mtDNA系统地理学的研究是否真实反映了家犬的驯化历史而不仅仅是随机事件或自然选择，是非常必要的。
丁昭莉博士等研究人员对来自世界范围的151只雄性家犬的26个Y染色体特异区段进行系统的DNA序列分析。结果发现，世界范围内家犬共享约50%的基因库；其中，亚洲长江以南地区的家犬具有最高的遗传多样性，并涵盖了所有的主体单倍型，说明其它地区的基因库都来源于该地区。另外，这151只家犬来源于13-24个灰狼父系建群者，并没证据显示有驯化后的家犬与灰狼的杂交建群者存在。因此，新的父系遗传的研究表明，现代世界各地的家犬都主要起源于东亚南部地区的灰狼。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1038/hdy.2011.114
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Origins of domestic dog in Southern East Asia is supported by analysis of Y-chromosome DNA Open
Z-L Ding, M Oskarsson, A Ardalan, H Angleby, L-G Dahlgren, C Tepeli, E Kirkness, P Savolainen and Y-P Zhang
Global mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data indicates that the dog originates from domestication of wolf in Asia South of Yangtze River (ASY), with minor genetic contributions from dog–wolf hybridisation elsewhere. Archaeological data and autosomal single nucleotide polymorphism data have instead suggested that dogs originate from Europe and/or South West Asia but, because these datasets lack data from ASY, evidence pointing to ASY may have been overlooked. Analyses of additional markers for global datasets, including ASY, are therefore necessary to test if mtDNA phylogeography reflects the actual dog history and not merely stochastic events or selection. Here, we analyse 14?437?bp of Y-chromosome DNA sequence in 151 dogs sampled worldwide. We found 28 haplotypes distributed in five haplogroups. Two haplogroups were universally shared and included three haplotypes carried by 46% of all dogs, but two other haplogroups were primarily restricted to East Asia. Highest genetic diversity and virtually complete phylogenetic coverage was found within ASY. The 151 dogs were estimated to originate from 13–24 wolf founders, but there was no indication of post-domestication dog–wolf hybridisations. Thus, Y-chromosome and mtDNA data give strikingly similar pictures of dog phylogeography, most importantly that roughly 50% of the gene pools are shared universally but only ASY has nearly the full range of genetic diversity, such that the gene pools in all other regions may derive from ASY. This corroborates that ASY was the principal, and possibly sole region of wolf domestication, that a large number of wolves were domesticated, and that subsequent dog–wolf hybridisation contributed modestly to the dog gene pool.
