A new genetic tree of our best friends, which includes 161 different breeds of today, reveals part of the unknown history of these animals ; In this sense, it suggests that there could be dogs descended from the ancient dogs that arrived in America some 10,000 years ago – thousands of years before Christopher Columbus arrived in these lands. It is also pointed out that the study of the genome of the different breeds of dog could help us in the investigation of human diseases.
According to a study recently published in the journal Cell Reports and carried out by a team led by Eliane Ostrander, from the National Human Genome Research Institute (Maryland, USA), the DNA sequences of 1,346 dogs have been examined with the objective to create one of the most diverse genetic maps that exist to date on the relationships that link the different races.
In this genetic tree we can observe the different types of dogs that humans have crossed to create the breeds of today, and it has revealed, for example, that not all those destined to carry out the same work –for example, herding– they necessarily share the same origins . “You might think that all working dogs or all herding dogs are related, but that is not the case,” explains Heidi Parker, who works as a biologist at the National Institutes of Health in the United States and also signs the study, in Nature .
According to these scientists, this is because herding dogs arose through selective breeding in different times and places , and each place and each time required different needs. Because the qualities that the human looked for in a dog destined to watch for example the herds of bison differed from the ideals in a dog that took care of the sheep.
Ancient dogs of the New World
Europe and Asia are the original continents from which most of the races that appear in this study come from, but not in all cases. Since they have located two types of South American dogs (the Peruvian hairless dog and the xoloitzcuintle) that could share genes different from those of the rest , which suggests that these could be descendants of dogs that were already in the American continent of way prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus.
There is evidence that human-domesticated dogs came to America, through the Bering Strait, thousands of years ago , and it was thought that these ancient canids would have disappeared with the arrival of those from Europe and Asia. However, they may not have completely disappeared, because it is believed that the Peruvian hairless dog and the xoloitzcuintle could be descended from those ancient dogs.
This study has not only been interested in unraveling the history and origins of dogs, but has also examined the genetic characteristics of different breeds to aid in the diagnosis of diseases in these animals and even evolve in the research of human diseases .
