The near eastern origin of cat domestication

Carlos A. Driscoll*, Marilyn Menotti-Raymond, Alfred L. Roca, Karsten Hupe, Warren E. Johnson, Eli Geffen, Eric H. Harley, Miguel Delibes, Dominique Pontier, Andrew C. Kitchener, Nobuyuki Yamaguchi, Stephen J. O'Brien, David W. Macdonald

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

420 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)519-523
Number of pages5
JournalScience
Volume317
Issue number5837
DOIs
StatePublished - 27 Jul 2007

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Cancer InstituteZ01BC005385

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