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Arendt M, Cairns KM, Ballard JW, Savolainen P, Axelsson E
Heredity (Edinb) 117 (5) 301-306 [2016-11-00; online 2016-07-13]
Adaptations allowing dogs to thrive on a diet rich in starch, including a significant AMY2B copy number gain, constituted a crucial step in the evolution of the dog from the wolf. It is however not clear whether this change was associated with the initial domestication, or represents a secondary shift related to the subsequent development of agriculture. Previous efforts to study this process were based on geographically limited data sets and low-resolution methods, and it is therefore not known to what extent the diet adaptations are universal among dogs and whether there are regional differences associated with alternative human subsistence strategies. Here we use droplet PCR to investigate worldwide AMY2B copy number diversity among indigenous as well as breed dogs and wolves to elucidate how a change in dog diet was associated with the domestication process and subsequent shifts in human subsistence. We find that AMY2B copy numbers are bimodally distributed with high copy numbers (median 2n
PubMed 27406651
DOI 10.1038/hdy.2016.48
Crossref 10.1038/hdy.2016.48
pii: hdy201648
pmc: PMC5061917