Publications by authors named "L M Frantz"
The origins and prehistory of domestic sheep () are incompletely understood; to address this, we generated data from 118 ancient genomes spanning 12,000 years sampled from across Eurasia. Genomes from Central Türkiye ~8000 BCE are genetically proximal to the domestic origins of sheep but do not fully explain the ancestry of later populations, suggesting a mosaic of wild ancestries. Genomic signatures indicate selection by ancient herders for pigmentation patterns, hornedness, and growth rate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReturning to campus after remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us were excited about participating in interactive, hands-on health promotion for students. In response, our Office of Wellness Promotion planned a student health and well-being expo in partnership with the university's College of Health Sciences (CHS). Faculty were invited to involve their students in the delivery.
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- - Bos taurus and Bos indicus cattle diverged over 150,000 years ago, leading to significant genomic differences and complex genetic mixing in African and Southern European cattle populations over the millennia.
- - Using software tools MOSAIC and ELAI, researchers analyzed the ancestry of hybrid African and Southern European cattle and found common genomic regions indicating retained or introgressed ancestry from various lineages, demonstrating the effectiveness of both methodologies.
- - The study highlighted that certain genomic regions relate to important biological functions, particularly in diseases like bovine tuberculosis and trypanosomiasis, showing how retained African taurine ancestry may help cattle manage severe anaemia, improving livestock resilience in sub-Saharan Africa.
Article Synopsis
- - The aurochs (Bos primigenius), now extinct, was a critical species in prehistoric Eurasian and North African ecosystems and is the ancestor of today's cattle, playing a significant role in providing food and labor for humans over thousands of years.
- - Researchers analyzed 38 ancient genomes, identifying four distinct aurochs populations (European, Southwest Asian, North Asian, and South Asian) that adapted to climate changes and human impacts throughout history.
- - The genetic study revealed that North Asian and European aurochs populations were separated until they mixed after the last glacial period, with domestication originating from a small group of individuals from Southwest Asia, leading to a hybridization with various aurochs strains.
Livestock guarding dogs (LGDs) have been used to protect livestock for millennia. While previous works suggested a single origin of modern LGDs, the degree and source of shared ancestry have not been tested. To address this, we generated genome-wide SNP data from 304 LGDs and combined it with public genomic data from 2,183 modern and 22 ancient dogs.
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