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Ballard JWO, Field MA, Edwards RJ, Wilson LAB, Koungoulos LG, Rosen BD, Chernoff B, Dudchenko O, Omer A, Keilwagen J, Skvortsova K, Bogdanovic O, Chan E, Zammit R, Hayes V, Aiden EL. The Australasian dingo archetype: de novo chromosome-length genome assembly, DNA methylome, and cranial morphology. Gigascience 2023; 12:giad018. [PMID: 36994871 PMCID: PMC10353722 DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giad018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2022] [Revised: 01/13/2023] [Accepted: 02/28/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND One difficulty in testing the hypothesis that the Australasian dingo is a functional intermediate between wild wolves and domesticated breed dogs is that there is no reference specimen. Here we link a high-quality de novo long-read chromosomal assembly with epigenetic footprints and morphology to describe the Alpine dingo female named Cooinda. It was critical to establish an Alpine dingo reference because this ecotype occurs throughout coastal eastern Australia where the first drawings and descriptions were completed. FINDINGS We generated a high-quality chromosome-level reference genome assembly (Canfam_ADS) using a combination of Pacific Bioscience, Oxford Nanopore, 10X Genomics, Bionano, and Hi-C technologies. Compared to the previously published Desert dingo assembly, there are large structural rearrangements on chromosomes 11, 16, 25, and 26. Phylogenetic analyses of chromosomal data from Cooinda the Alpine dingo and 9 previously published de novo canine assemblies show dingoes are monophyletic and basal to domestic dogs. Network analyses show that the mitochondrial DNA genome clusters within the southeastern lineage, as expected for an Alpine dingo. Comparison of regulatory regions identified 2 differentially methylated regions within glucagon receptor GCGR and histone deacetylase HDAC4 genes that are unmethylated in the Alpine dingo genome but hypermethylated in the Desert dingo. Morphologic data, comprising geometric morphometric assessment of cranial morphology, place dingo Cooinda within population-level variation for Alpine dingoes. Magnetic resonance imaging of brain tissue shows she had a larger cranial capacity than a similar-sized domestic dog. CONCLUSIONS These combined data support the hypothesis that the dingo Cooinda fits the spectrum of genetic and morphologic characteristics typical of the Alpine ecotype. We propose that she be considered the archetype specimen for future research investigating the evolutionary history, morphology, physiology, and ecology of dingoes. The female has been taxidermically prepared and is now at the Australian Museum, Sydney.
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Affiliation(s)
- J William O Ballard
- School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
- Department of Environment and Genetics, SABE, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria 3086, Australia
| | - Matt A Field
- Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Science, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia
- Immunogenomics Lab, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Australia
| | - Richard J Edwards
- School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Laura A B Wilson
- School of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Australian National University, Acton, ACT 2600, Australia
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Loukas G Koungoulos
- Department of Archaeology, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, the University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Benjamin D Rosen
- Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service USDA, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
| | - Barry Chernoff
- College of the Environment, Departments of Biology, and Earth & Environmental Sciences, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459, USA
| | - Olga Dudchenko
- The Center for Genome Architecture, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Center for Theoretical and Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
| | - Arina Omer
- Center for Theoretical and Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
| | - Jens Keilwagen
- Institute for Biosafety in Plant Biotechnology, Julius Kühn-Institut, Quedlinburg 06484, Germany
| | - Ksenia Skvortsova
- Developmental Epigenomics Lab, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
| | - Ozren Bogdanovic
- Developmental Epigenomics Lab, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
| | - Eva Chan
- Developmental Epigenomics Lab, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
- Statewide Genomics, New South Wales Health Pathology, Newcastle, NSW 2300, Australia
| | - Robert Zammit
- Vineyard Veterinary Hospital,Vineyard, NSW 2765, Australia
| | - Vanessa Hayes
- Developmental Epigenomics Lab, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
- Charles Perkins Centre, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia
| | - Erez Lieberman Aiden
- The Center for Genome Architecture, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Center for Theoretical and Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
- UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
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Hirschi A, Mazzini A, Riemer S. Disentangling help-seeking and giving up: differential human-directed gazing by dogs in a modified unsolvable task paradigm. Anim Cogn 2022; 25:821-836. [PMID: 35020108 PMCID: PMC8753593 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-021-01595-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2021] [Revised: 12/09/2021] [Accepted: 12/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/01/2022]
Abstract
Dogs are renowned for 'looking back' at humans when confronted with a problem, but it has been questioned whether this implies help-seeking or giving up. We tested 56 pet dogs from two breed groups (herding dogs and terriers) in a modified unsolvable task paradigm. One reward type (food or toy) was enclosed in a box, while the respective other reward was accessible. With both reward types, human-directed gazing in relation to the box was significantly positively correlated with interaction with the box, as long as an alternative was available. This suggests that both behaviours served to attain the unavailable reward and reflected individual motivation for the inaccessible vs the accessible reward. Furthermore, we varied whether the owner or the experimenter was responsible for handling the rewards. In the owner-responsible group, dogs rarely gazed at the experimenter. In the experimenter-responsible group, dogs preferentially directed box-related gazing (prior to or after looking at or interacting with the box) at the owner. Still, they gazed at the experimenter significantly longer than the owner-responsible group. Conversely, toy-related gazing was directed significantly more at the experimenter. Thus, dogs adjust their gazing behaviour according to the people's responsibility and their current goal (help-seeking vs play). Gaze duration did not differ between herding dogs and terriers. We conclude that dogs use gazing at humans' faces as a social problem-solving strategy, but not all gazing can be classified as such. Dogs' human-directed gazing is influenced by the social relationships with the persons, situational associations, and context (unsolvable problem vs play).
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Affiliation(s)
- Annina Hirschi
- Companion Animal Behaviour Group, Division of Animal Welfare, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Alja Mazzini
- Companion Animal Behaviour Group, Division of Animal Welfare, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Stefanie Riemer
- Companion Animal Behaviour Group, Division of Animal Welfare, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, 3012, Bern, Switzerland.
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Field MA, Yadav S, Dudchenko O, Esvaran M, Rosen BD, Skvortsova K, Edwards RJ, Keilwagen J, Cochran BJ, Manandhar B, Bustamante S, Rasmussen JA, Melvin RG, Chernoff B, Omer A, Colaric Z, Chan EKF, Minoche AE, Smith TPL, Gilbert MTP, Bogdanovic O, Zammit RA, Thomas T, Aiden EL, Ballard JWO. The Australian dingo is an early offshoot of modern breed dogs. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eabm5944. [PMID: 35452284 PMCID: PMC9032958 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm5944] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2021] [Accepted: 03/09/2022] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Dogs are uniquely associated with human dispersal and bring transformational insight into the domestication process. Dingoes represent an intriguing case within canine evolution being geographically isolated for thousands of years. Here, we present a high-quality de novo assembly of a pure dingo (CanFam_DDS). We identified large chromosomal differences relative to the current dog reference (CanFam3.1) and confirmed no expanded pancreatic amylase gene as found in breed dogs. Phylogenetic analyses using variant pairwise matrices show that the dingo is distinct from five breed dogs with 100% bootstrap support when using Greenland wolf as the outgroup. Functionally, we observe differences in methylation patterns between the dingo and German shepherd dog genomes and differences in serum biochemistry and microbiome makeup. Our results suggest that distinct demographic and environmental conditions have shaped the dingo genome. In contrast, artificial human selection has likely shaped the genomes of domestic breed dogs after divergence from the dingo.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matt A. Field
- Centre for Tropical Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD 4878, Australia
- Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Australia
| | - Sonu Yadav
- School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, UNSW Sydney, High St, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Olga Dudchenko
- The Center for Genome Architecture, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
| | - Meera Esvaran
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Benjamin D. Rosen
- Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
| | - Ksenia Skvortsova
- Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Australia
| | - Richard J. Edwards
- School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, UNSW Sydney, High St, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Jens Keilwagen
- Julius Kühn-Institut, Erwin-Baur-Str. 27, 06484 Quedlinburg, Germany
| | - Blake J. Cochran
- School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Bikash Manandhar
- School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Sonia Bustamante
- Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility, Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Jacob Agerbo Rasmussen
- Laboratory of Genomics and Molecular Biomedicine, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 2100, Denmark
- Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The GLOBE Institute University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Richard G. Melvin
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota Medical School, 1035 University Drive, Duluth, MN 55812, USA
| | - Barry Chernoff
- College of the Environment, Departments of Biology, and Earth and Environmental Sciences, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459, USA
| | - Arina Omer
- The Center for Genome Architecture, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Zane Colaric
- The Center for Genome Architecture, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Eva K. F. Chan
- Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Australia
- Statewide Genomics, New South Wales Health Pathology, 45 Watt St, Newcastle, NSW 2300, Australia
| | - Andre E. Minoche
- Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Australia
| | - Timothy P. L. Smith
- U.S. Meat Animal Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, Rd 313, Clay Center, NE 68933, USA
| | - M. Thomas P. Gilbert
- Laboratory of Genomics and Molecular Biomedicine, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 2100, Denmark
- University Museum, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Ozren Bogdanovic
- Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, NSW 2010, Australia
- School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, UNSW Sydney, High St, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Robert A. Zammit
- Vineyard Veterinary Hospital, 703 Windsor Rd, Vineyard, NSW 2765, Australia
| | - Torsten Thomas
- School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
| | - Erez L. Aiden
- The Center for Genome Architecture, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA
- Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, Rice University, Houston, TX 77005, USA
- UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
- Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies, ShanghaiTech University, Pudong 201210, China
- Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - J. William O. Ballard
- Department of Environment and Genetics, SABE, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia
- School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia
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