• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Biology

Ancient DNA clarifies the early history of American colonial horses

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
July 27, 2022
in Biology
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

A newly identified 16th century horse specimen is among the oldest domestic horses from the Americas known to date, and its DNA helps clarify the history of horses in the Western Hemisphere, according to a study published July 27, 2022, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Nicolas Delsol of the University of Florida, U.S.A., and colleagues.

Picture of the horse specimen.

Credit: Nicolas Delsol, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

A newly identified 16th century horse specimen is among the oldest domestic horses from the Americas known to date, and its DNA helps clarify the history of horses in the Western Hemisphere, according to a study published July 27, 2022, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Nicolas Delsol of the University of Florida, U.S.A., and colleagues.

Domestic horses were first brought to the Americas by Europeans in the late 15th century and became a pivotal part of European industry and military in the Western Hemisphere. Historical documents suggest the earliest domestic horses were brought to the Caribbean from the Iberian Peninsula, but little archaeological evidence exists to corroborate this. In this study, researchers present a genetic analysis of a late 16th century horse specimen, shedding light on the origins and spread of American domestic horses.

The specimen is a tooth fragment, originally misidentified as cow, from the Spanish colonial site of Puerto Real in what is now Haiti. The authors sequenced the mitochondrial genome, not only allowing for a correct identification, but also making this the earliest known complete mitogenome of a post-Columbian domestic horse in the Americas.

This horse belongs to a genetic lineage called equine haplogroup A, whose members are well known from Southern Europe, supporting the hypothesis that they originated on the Iberian Peninsula. Furthermore, this horse’s closest living relatives are the feral ponies of Chincoteague Island, Virginia, said by local folk stories to have become stranded after a Spanish shipwreck.

Although this study presents only a single mitochondrial genome, the authors suggest the results are significant in multiple respects. First, this horse’s position within a common Iberian lineage supports documentation of the Iberian Peninsula as the source of many early American domestic horses. Second, the relationships between this horse and others in the Americas will help clarify our understanding of the path horses took as they colonized the Americas.

The authors add: “Our study highlights how ancient DNA can help us understand cultural and historical processes, not only in the remote past but also in understudied episodes of more recent history. The analysis of the introduction of European domesticates (e.g. the horse) in the Americas is such a fascinating yet understudied topic. Our results support the Iberian origins of these animals but they also highlight another narrative: the exploration of the mid-Atlantic coast by the Spanish early during the colonial period.”

#####

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0270600

Citation: Delsol N, Stucky BJ, Oswald JA, Reitz EJ, Emery KF, Guralnick R (2022) Analysis of the earliest complete mtDNA genome of a Caribbean colonial horse (Equus caballus) from 16th-century Haiti. PLoS ONE 17(7): e0270600. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270600

Author Countries: U.S.A.

Funding: KFE and ND received support from NSF DDRIG grant (#1930628) for this research (https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/archaeology-and-archaeometry-0). ND’s initial research was also funded by a Fulbright scholarship. The field research in Haiti was financed through contributions of the Organization of American States, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Dr. William Goya, the Wentworth Foundation, the University of Florida Division of Sponsored Research, and the Florida Museum of Natural History. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.



Journal

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0270600

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Analysis of the earliest complete mtDNA genome of a Caribbean colonial horse (Equus caballus) from 16th-century Haiti

Article Publication Date

27-Jul-2022

COI Statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Share22Tweet14Share4ShareShareShare3

Related Posts

Schematic view of Wnt signaling in heart tissue.

Future medical applications in drug design

August 9, 2022
Image 1

Robot helps reveal how ants pass on knowledge

August 9, 2022

The walk of Japanese children develops differently from children in other countries

August 9, 2022

Aldosterone linked to increased risk of chronic kidney disease progression and end-stage kidney disease

August 9, 2022

POPULAR NEWS

  • Picture of the horse specimen.

    Ancient DNA clarifies the early history of American colonial horses

    56 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14
  • The pair of Orcas deterring Great White Sharks – by ripping open their torsos for livers

    66 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 17
  • Ill-fated ‘Into the Wild’ adventurer was victim of unfortunate timing, Oregon State study suggests

    39 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • Skin: An additional tool for the versatile elephant trunk

    38 shares
    Share 15 Tweet 10

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

WeaponryVehiclesWeather/StormsUrogenital SystemZoology/Veterinary ScienceVirusVirologyUrbanizationUniversity of WashingtonVaccineVaccinesViolence/Criminals

Recent Posts

  • Sexual dysfunction high among women with lung cancer
  • Vancouver researchers suggest air pollution be included as risk factor for patients with lung cancer and have never smoked
  • Association Between KRAS/STK11/KEAP1 Mutations and Outcomes in POSEIDON: Durvalumab ± Tremelimumab + Chemotherapy in mNSCLC
  • Informed consent forms for lung cancer clinical trials may be a barrier to informed trial participation
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In