Ancient Whole Mitochondrial Genomes and Insights into the Prehistory of Goats

The domestication of goats is thought to have occurred in the Near East approximately 10,000 years ago. As one of the earliest domesticated animals, elucidating the patterns, pace and major events of the process is of great interest. However, such analyses using genomic data from modern goats are hampered by 10,000 years of human-mediated movement of goat. Ancient DNA allows populations prior to this be directly sampled. We present an initial analysis of whole mitochondria data from goat sampled from a range of time depths. We observed a high degree of mitochondrial diversity at earlier periods followed by a significant restriction which has shaped modern goat mitochondrial diversity. We also report a 14 thousand year old caprid mitochondrial lineage most similar to the Caucasian Tur (Capra caucasica), having diverged from it over 100,000 years ago.