N. Okumura et al., Variations in mitochondrial DNA of dogs isolated from archaeological sitesin Japan and neighbouring islands, ANTHROP SCI, 107(3), 1999, pp. 213-228
Sequences of ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from archaeological remains
of Japanese dogs were determined from 145 ancient dog samples (mainly bones
) from the Jomon (100C-4C B.C.), Yayoi (4C B.C -3C A.D.), Kofun (3-6C A.D.)
, Okhotsk (7-12C A.D.) and the Kamakura (12-14C A.D.) Periods. Highly varia
ble sequences of the mitochondrial control region (198 base pairs) were amp
lified at least twice from independently prepared DNA extracts, and those f
rom ancient samples were compared with 28 haplotypes from 178 modern dogs.
The 198-bp ancient mtDNA was amplified from 74 ancient dog samples, and the
sequences were classified into 19 haplotypes comprising five modern haplot
ypes (M1, M2, M5, M10 and M11) identified in modern dogs and 14 ancient hap
lotypes showing unique sequences not observed in modern dogs. Haplotype M5
was widely distributed in archaeological sites in northern Japan and Sakhal
in, while haplotype M2 was detected from archaeological sites in southern J
apan. Three major clusters (CL1 to CL3) were distinguished within the moder
n dog control region using phylogenetic analysis; all ancient dogs belonged
to the CL1 cluster. From these results, we could not discern which modern
Japanese dog breed closely resembles ancient dogs using phylogenetic analys
is, but the CL1 cluster was likely distributed in the Japanese archipelago
from the Jomon Period.