Genetic evidence for Near-Eastern origins of European cattle

The limited ranges of the wild progenitors of many of the primary European domestic species point to their origins further east in Anatolia or the fer tile crescent(1,2). The wild ox (Bos primigenius), however, ranged widely(3 ) and it is unknown whether it was domesticated within Europe as one featur e of a local contribution to the farming economy(1,2,4). Here we examine mi tochondrial DNA control-region sequence variation from 392 extant animals s ampled from Europe, Africa and the Near East, and compare this with data fr om four extinct British wild oxen. The ancient sequences cluster tightly in a phylogenetic analysis and are clearly distinct from modern cattle. Netwo rk analysis of modern Bos taurus identifies four star-like clusters of hapl otypes, with intracluster diversities that approximate to that expected fro m the time depth of domestic history. Notably, one of these clusters predom inates in Europe and is one of three encountered at substantial frequency i n the Near East. In contrast, African diversity is almost exclusively compo sed of a separate haplogroup, which is encountered only rarely elsewhere. T hese data provide strong support for a derived Near-Eastern origin for Euro pean cattle.