European domestic horses originated in two holocene refugia.
Authors: Warmuth Vera, Eriksson Anders, Bower Mim A, Cañon Javier, Cothran Gus, Distl Ottmar, Glowatzki-Mullis Marie-Louise, Hunt Harriet, Luís Cristina, do Mar Oom Maria, Yupanqui Isabel Tupac, Ząbek Tomasz, Manica Andrea
Journal: PloS one
Summary
# Editorial Summary Using microsatellite analysis across 24 European horse breeds, Warmuth and colleagues identified two distinct geographic sources of domestication that fundamentally shaped the genetic architecture of modern European horses. The Iberian Peninsula and the Caspian Sea region exhibited significantly higher genetic diversity than central European and UK breeds, a pattern the researchers correlated with Holocene vegetation patterns—open grasslands in Iberia and the Caspian steppe versus closed forest in central Europe and Britain at the time horses first appeared in archaeological records. Rather than a single Eastern steppe origin, this evidence suggests that wild horse populations persisting in Iberian and Caspian refugia made substantial genetic contributions to local domestic populations, while central European and UK horses were predominantly imported stock derived from these same refugia. For contemporary breeding programmes and breed conservation, this work highlights that European breeds carry distinct ancestral signatures reflecting their regional domestication routes, with implications for understanding both historical genetic introgression and the potential genetic resources available within different breed populations.
Read the full abstract on PubMed
Practical Takeaways
- •Understanding that European horses have dual geographic origins (Iberia and Caspian region) helps explain breed genetic diversity and may inform selective breeding decisions
- •Breeds from Iberian and Caspian regions carry greater genetic diversity, which could be relevant for maintaining genetic health in breeding programmes
- •Geographic origin of breed ancestry affects genetic background and may have implications for breed-specific health and performance characteristics
Key Findings
- •European domestic horses originated from two main Holocene refugia: the Iberian Peninsula and the Caspian Sea region, not solely from Eastern steppes
- •Genetic diversity in European horse breeds correlates with pre-domestication landscape distribution, with Iberian and Caspian breeds showing significantly higher diversity than central European and UK breeds
- •Central European and UK domestic horses were likely imported from Eastern or Iberian refugia rather than descended from local wild populations, as these regions were predominantly forested during initial horse domestication