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Domesticcat Driscoll2007
Domesticcat Driscoll2007
Carlos A. Driscoll,1,2* Marilyn Menotti-Raymond,1 Alfred L. Roca,3 Karsten Hupe,4 Warren E. Johnson,1 Eli Geffen,5 Eric
Harley,6 Miguel Delibes,7 Dominique Pontier,8 Andrew C. Kitchener,9 Nobuyuki Yamaguchi,2 Stephen J. O’Brien,1* David
Macdonald2*
1
Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. 2Wildlife Conservation Research
Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK. 3Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, SAIC-Frederick
Inc., NCI-Frederick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA. 4Jagd Einrichtungs Büro, Am Sahlbach 9a, 37170 Fürstenhagen, Germany.
5
Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel. 6Division of Chemical Pathology, University of Cape
Town, Observatory 7925, Cape Town, South Africa. 7Department of Applied Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC,
Avda Maria Luisa s/n Pabellón del Perú, 41013 Sevilla, Spain. 8UMR-CNRS 5558 Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, Université
Claude Bernard Lyon I, 43 boulevard du 11 novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne, France. 9Department of Geology and Zoology,
National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh EH1 1JF, Scotland, UK.
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: obrien@ncifcrf.gov; driscoll@ncifcrf.gov;
david.macdonald@zoology.oxford.ac.uk
The world’s domestic cats carry patterns of sequence the domestic cat within this assemblage stems from
variation in their genome that reflect a history of morphological similarities among these groups (1, 13). A
domestication and breed development. A genetic feral domestic cat with a “wild-type” mackerel tabby pattern
assessment of 979 domestic cats and their wild progenitors is difficult to distinguish visually from a “true” wildcat (15,
(Felis silvestris silvestris – European wildcat; F. s. lybica – 16) which is further confounded by ongoing admixture (16–
Near Eastern wildcat; F. s. ornata – Central Asian 19). Furthermore the relationship between F. silvestris and
wildcat; F. s. cafra – sub Saharan African wildcat; and F. the Chinese desert cat, which may be a separate Felis species,
s. bieti – Chinese desert cat) indicated that each wild Felis bieti or a wildcat subspecies F. silvestris bieti (9, 12), is
group represents a distinctive subspecies of Felis silvestris. uncertain. The sand cat, F. margarita, a distinct species of
Further analysis revealed that cats were domesticated in Felis which ranges across North Africa and the Middle East,
is the closest outgroup of the F. silvestris/bieti complex on
the Near East, likely coincident with agricultural village
the basis of morphological and molecular data (12, 13, 20).
development in the Fertile Crescent. Domestic cats derive
To investigate the relationships among domestic cats, their
from at least five founders from across this region, whose indigenous wild progenitors and related species of the genus
descendents were subsequently transported across the Felis, we collected tissue from 979 individuals (fig. S1; see
world by human assistance. table S1 for breakdown of number of cats tested for different
The domestic cat may be the world’s most numerous pet, yet genetic markers) including putative wildcats and feral
little is certain of the cat’s origin (1–9). Archaeological domestic cats on three continents (N = 629), fancy breed
remains and anthropological clues suggest that, unlike species domestic cats (N = 112), sand cats (Felis margarita, N = 11),
domesticated for agriculture (e.g., cow, pig, sheep), or and Chinese desert cats (F. s. bieti, N = 5). We extracted
transport (horse, donkey), the cat began its association with DNA and genotyped 851 cats for 36 variable short tandem
humans as a commensal, feeding on rodent pests infesting repeat (STR) or microsatellite domestic cat loci (21) variable
grain stores of the first farmers (1). The earliest evidence of in F. silvestris, F. s. bieti, F. margarita, and domestic cats,
cat –human association involves their co-occurrence in and sequenced 2604 bp of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
Cyprus deposits aged at 9500 years ago (6). Domestic cats are genes ND5 and ND6 from 742 cats.
generally considered descendant of the Old World wildcats Neighbor-joining phylogenetic analyses for STR
but differ from these hypothesized progenitors in behavior, genotypes with kinship coefficient (Dkf) and proportion of
tameness, and coat color diversity (9, 10). Further, domestic shared alleles (Dps) genetic distance estimators provided
cats appear to lack neotenous characteristics typical of other concordant topologies that specified six clusters (Fig. 1B;
domesticated species (11). referred to here as “clades” as also specified mtDNA
Felis silvestris, from which domestic cats were derived, is phylogenetic analyses; see below ) corresponding to the
classified as a polytypic wild species composed of three or following subspecies designations: 1) F.s. silvestris wildcats
more distinct inter-fertile subspecies: F. s. silvestris in from Europe, (STR-Clade I-green in Fig. 1); 2) F.s. ornata
Europe, F. s. lybica in Africa and the Near East, and F. s. wildcats from central Asia east of the Caspian Sea (STR-
ornata in the Middle East and Central Asia (1, 2, 12–15) and Clade III-purple); 3) F. s. lybica, wildcats from the Near East
possibly the Chinese desert cat, F. s.. bieti (inset Fig. 1A). (STR-Clade IV-beige); 4) F.s. cafra wildcats from Southern
The domestic cat is sometimes considered an additional Africa (STR-Clade II-blue); 5) F. s. bieti, Chinese desert cats
subspecies, F. s. catus, possibly derived from wildcats in the (STR-Clade V-red); and 6) F. margarita, sand cat (STR-
Middle East or Egypt (1, 12, 14, 15). The imprecise sub- Clade VI-black). Felis cafra was first named in 1822 and
specific status of F. silvestris populations, and relationship of renamed as Felis lybica cafra subspecies in 1944 on the basis