Ancient genomes illuminate the origins and dynamic history of East Asian cattle
- Dawei Cai
- Donghee Kim
- Naifan Zhang
- Xingcheng Wang
- Tianshu Li
- Jian Li
- Chang Li
- Shengnan Lian
- Xinyue Shao
- Songmei Hu
- Miaomiao Yang
- Jie Zhang
- Yongqiang Wang
- Qiurong Ruan
- Idilisi Abuduresule
- Linheng Mo
- Wenyan Li
- Xiaoning Guo
- Wenying Li
- Jing Shao
- Zhouyong Sun
- Yaqi Tian
- Hui Wang
- Ruilin Mao
- Cunshi Zhu
- Xiaoyang Wang
- Xiaoyan Ren
- Weilin Wang
- Yan Ding
- Pengcheng Zhang
- Liping Yang
- Jianen Cao
- Yu Dang
- Da Ha
- Wei Zhang
- Linshan He
- Chunxue Wang
- Lixin Wang
- Quanchao Zhang
- Jing Yuan
- Xiaohong Wu
- Chao Ning
- Choongwon Jeong
2025-12-18
The evolutionary history of domesticated cattle in East Asia for the past 5000 years remains largely obscure. Here, we investigated the origins and evolution of cattle genetic diversity in China by analyzing shotgun genome sequences of 166 ancient bovines spanning a 10,000-year period and encompassing now-extinct East Asian aurochs and domesticated cattle from key archaeological cultures. East and North Asian aurochs were distinct from western aurochs, although East Asian aurochs harbored approximately 15% western ancestry. The first domesticated cattle in the Yellow River region derived approximately 10% of their ancestry from local aurochs with an uneven genome-wide distribution. Early cattle from Xinjiang were genetically distinct and partially contributed to the later northern Chinese cattle. Indicine admixture became widespread only in the Medieval period in northern China.