Publications by authors named "Quankuan Shen"

Article Synopsis
  • Dairy pastoralism on the Tibetan Plateau started around 3600 years ago with the introduction of dairy animals and dogs from West Eurasia.
  • Genetic analysis shows a unique lactase persistence allele specific to Tibetans, which is different from those found in West Eurasians and South Asians.
  • The findings highlight how Tibetans adapted both culturally and genetically to include dairy in their diet, enriching our understanding of their pastoral lifestyle.
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Long-read sequencing technology is a powerful approach with application in various genetic and genomic research. Herein, we developed the pipeline for long amplicon high-fidelity (HiFi) sequencing and then applied it for sequencing mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genomes from pools of 79 Tibetan Mastiffs. We amplified the mtDNA genome with long-range PCR using two pairs of primers.

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The diversity of Central Asians has been shaped by multiple migrations and cultural diffusion. Although ancient DNA studies have revealed the demographic changes of the Central Asian since the Bronze Age, the contribution of the ancient populations to the modern Central Asian remains opaque. Herein, we performed high-coverage sequencing of 131 whole genomes of Indo-European-speaking Tajik and Turkic-speaking Kyrgyz populations to explore their genomic diversity and admixture history.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study presents a high-quality genome assembly for the helmeted guinea fowl (HGF) to aid in understanding its domestication process in Africa.
  • Genome analysis of 129 guinea fowl reveals domestication events occurred in West Africa approximately 1,300-5,500 years ago.
  • Insights into genes related to behavior, locomotion, plumage color, and fertility were discovered, offering valuable resources for future research and breeding efforts.
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As a vigorous and hardy and an almost disease-free game bird, the domestic helmeted guinea fowl (Numida meleagris, hereafter HGF) has attracted considerable attention in a large number of genetic study projects. However, none of the current/recent avian databases are related to this agriculturally and commercially important poultry species. To address this data gap, we developed Helmeted Guinea Fowl Database (HGFDB), which manages and shares HGF genomic and genetic data.

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Article Synopsis
  • The Tibetan Empire's expansion from the 7th to 9th centuries significantly influenced East Eurasian history, yet its genetic effects on nearby populations were not well understood.* -
  • Researchers sequenced genomes from populations in Pakistan and Tajikistan, finding that the Balti people have 22.6-26% Tibetan ancestry, linked to a single admixture event around 39-21 generations ago.* -
  • The study concludes that while the Balti adopted Tibetan language and culture, the genetic influence from Tibet was mainly cultural rather than significant population movement, highlighting both male and female contributions in this change.*
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Despite the substantial role that chickens have played in human societies across the world, both the geographic and temporal origins of their domestication remain controversial. To address this issue, we analyzed 863 genomes from a worldwide sampling of chickens and representatives of all four species of wild jungle fowl and each of the five subspecies of red jungle fowl (RJF). Our study suggests that domestic chickens were initially derived from the RJF subspecies Gallus gallus spadiceus whose present-day distribution is predominantly in southwestern China, northern Thailand and Myanmar.

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Preaxial polydactyly (PPD) is congenital hand malformation characterized by the duplication of digit. Herein, we scan the genome-wide SNPs for a large Chinese family with PPD-II/III. We employ the refined IBD algorithm to identify the identity-by-decent (IBD) segments and compare the frequency among the patients and normal relatives.

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