The Near Eastern Origin of Cat Domestication
Carlos A. Driscoll,1,2*
Marilyn Menotti-Raymond,1
Alfred L. Roca,3
Karsten Hupe,4
Warren E. Johnson,1
Eli Geffen,5
Eric H. Harley,6
Miguel Delibes,7
Dominique Pontier,8
Andrew C. Kitchener,9,10
Nobuyuki Yamaguchi,2
Stephen J. O'Brien,1*
David W. Macdonald2*
The world's domestic cats carry patterns of sequence variation in their genome that reflect a history of domestication and breed development. A genetic assessment of 979 domestic cats and their wild progenitors—Felis silvestris silvestris (European wildcat), F. s. lybica (Near Eastern wildcat), F. s. ornata (central Asian wildcat), F. s. cafra (southern African wildcat), and F. s. bieti (Chinese desert cat)—indicated that each wild group represents a distinctive subspecies of Felis silvestris. Further analysis revealed that cats were domesticated in the Near East, probably coincident with agricultural village development in the Fertile Crescent. Domestic cats derive from at least five founders from across this region, whose descendants were transported across the world by human assistance.
1 Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD 21702, USA.
2 Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.
3 Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, SAIC-Frederick Inc., NCI-Frederick, Frederick, MD 21702, USA.
4 Jagd Einrichtungs Büro, Am Sahlbach 9a, 37170 Fürstenhagen, Germany.
5 Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
6 Division of Chemical Pathology, University of Cape Town, Observatory 7925, Cape Town, South Africa.
7 Department of Applied Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC, Avda Maria Luisa s/n Pabellón del Perú, 41013 Sevilla, Spain.
8 UMR-CNRS 5558 Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, Université Claude Bernard Lyon I, 43 boulevard du 11 novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne, France.
9 Department of Natural Sciences, National Museums Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF, UK.
10 Institute of Geography, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9XP, UK.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: obrien{at}ncifcrf.gov; driscoll{at}ncifcrf.gov; david.macdonald{at}zoology.oxford.ac.uk
