The Near Eastern Origin of Cat Domestication
Abstract
The world's domestic cats carry patterns of sequence variation in their genome that reflect a history of domestication and breed development. A genetic assessment of 979 domestic cats and their wild progenitors—Felis silvestris silvestris (European wildcat), F. s. lybica (Near Eastern wildcat), F. s. ornata (central Asian wildcat), F. s. cafra (southern African wildcat), and F. s. bieti (Chinese desert cat)—indicated that each wild group represents a distinctive subspecies of Felis silvestris. Further analysis revealed that cats were domesticated in the Near East, probably coincident with agricultural village development in the Fertile Crescent. Domestic cats derive from at least five founders from across this region, whose descendants were transported across the world by human assistance.
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We thank M. W. Smith, A. Schmidt-Kuntzel, C. O'hUigen, and B. Gold for discussions and J. Bruksch, A. Brandt, S. Rosendale, and F. Hussain for technical assistance. We appreciate the efforts of all of our collaborators listed in fig. S1 who provided biological specimens used in this study. All tissues were collected in full compliance with federal fish and wildlife permits [Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)] issued to the National Cancer Institute (NCI; principal officer, S.J.O.) by the Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Supported by NCI grant N01-CO-12400 and the Intramural Research Program of the NCI Center for Cancer Research. Sequences have been deposited in GenBank with accession numbers EF587016 to EF587179.
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Science
Volume 317 | Issue 5837
27 July 2007
27 July 2007
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American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Received: 4 January 2007
Accepted: 18 June 2007
Published in print: 27 July 2007
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