The NSU Laboratory of Paleogene Genetics, part of the Strategic Academic Unit "Synthetic Biology", examined the bones of an ancient sheep that inhabited the territory of Siberia. The remains demonstrated that the physical condition of ancient animals was superior to modern animals.
The appearance of livestock in the territory of Siberia is a topical question in modern science. A marker of this important historical stage is the presence of sheep bone remains at the archaeological sites of ancient cattlemen in Western and Southern Siberia. The most ancient finds are objects of the Afanasyevo culture of Altai (1st half of the 3rd millennium BC). Among the studied monuments of great importance is the settlement of Berezovaya Luka, that is characterized as a cultural and economic center and belongs to the Elunin archaeological culture (the end of III - the 1st third of the 2nd millennium BC). Excavations at this settlement made it possible to obtain a colossal amount of material of which the bones of domestic animals predominate making up approx. 99%, including bone remains of small cattle (over 55%).
The NSU Laboratory of Paleogenomics studies are aimed, firstly, at determining the phylogenetic connections between modern and ancient sheep. Secondly, they are focused on the study of polymorphic variants of genes associated with the "economically-useful traits" of ancient sheep.
Recently, the Laboratory staff published an article in the journal "Animal Genetics" (DOI: 10.1111 / age.12569). Based on the polymorphism of the D-loop of mitochondrial DNA, the authors suggested the existence of a previously unknown haplotype of ancient sheep. Among the studied samples there are also already known haplotypes A and B. The existence of two major haplotypes, haplotype and nucleotide diversity, prove the existence in the past of a great variety of sheep. In addition, the ancient sheep were larger than modern ones explained one of the authors of the work, a junior researcher at the Laboratory, member of the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine SB RAS, Candidate of Biological Sciences Maya Dymova.
Scientists believe that the highly heterogeneous sheep population that existed prior to domestication may have been reduced by the bottleneck effect, but it was not as dramatic as it was for other domestic animals. The data are consistent with the general statement that during the Early Bronze Age a huge colonization process took place from the Middle East (Fertile Crescent) to east Eurasia (including Mongolia, China, India) through the Caucasus and Central Asia. It can also be assumed that Altai was a type of migration corridor for the settlement of domestic animals, including sheep or they at least certainly had a preference for this.
The full text of the article can be found at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/age.12569/full
The NSU Laboratory of Paleogeneomics was established three years ago with the support of the "5-100" Project for increasing the competitiveness of Russian universities.
