Genetic analysis of domestication patterns in the cat (Felis catus) : worldwide population structure, and human-mediated breeding patterns both modern and ancient
Jennifer Dawn Kurushima (Author)
Cats first became associated with humans during early agricultural development in the Neolithic Era. Later, they were used in Egyptian society as a symbol of femininity and beauty and became an important religious icon in the Late Dynastic Period. Genetic studies of potential wildcat progenitors suggest the Eastern Mediterranean as the origin of the domestic cat, most likely from the African wildcat (Felis silvestris libyca) by a process of natural selection. Artificial selection resulting in pedigreed lines of cats has only recently been implemented in the past 125 years. Here, a variety of molecular markers are used to trace human-mediated movements of domestic random bred cats throughout the world, and pinpoint a domestication site (Chapter 1), develop a method for assigning an unknown domestic cat to either a random bred population of origin, or a particular breed (Chapter 2), and assess the domestication status of mummified cat remains from the Late Period of ancient Egypt (624 - 323 B.C.) (Chapter 3).A combination of 38 informative microsatellites (STRs) and 148 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were used to assess 944 random bred street cats from 37 worldwide populations (Chapter 1). Eight worldwide lineages were detected representing Europe/America, Eastern Mediterranean Basin, Egypt, Iraq/Iran, Arabian Sea, India, Southern Asia, and Eastern Asia. Historical and recent migrations of humans also reflected corresponding migrations of domestic cats. The most diverse and perhaps the oldest populations were those found in the Fertile Crescent, in particular populations within Iraq, Lebanon, and Israel. The same molecular markers along with a selection of five phenotypic SNPs were then applied to fancy-breed cats in the United States (Chapter 2). Frequentist methods were found to be superior to the Bayesian methods in accurately reassigning known cats back to their breed of origin, with STRs outperforming SNPs. However, with the addition of a post-assignment screening process, five phenotypic SNPs were on par with that of the STRs in terms of sensitivity and specificity. In a final study, portions of the control region (CR) of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were sequenced in the remains of three feline mummies from the Late Period of ancient Egyptian History. The three cats all produced varying mitotypes indicative of domesticated cats. Both the diversity and the lack of wildcat-like sequence suggest that the mummified remains of cats found in the tombs of Ancient Egypt were from domesticated cats
Thesis, Dissertation, English, 2011
University of California, Davis, Davis, Calif., 2011