Review and prospect of archaeological and genetic research on yak domestication on the Tibetan Plateau
The domestic yak is a key animal species that facilitated prehistoric human exploring and settling on the Tibetan Plateau,particularly for permanent establishment in the high-altitude areas.It is hence well known as the"boat of the plateau"and"omnipotent livestock".As the most important livestock on the Tibetan Plateau,domestic yak has provided the herdsmen with meat,milk,transport power,fur,fuel and other necessary resources for production and life.However,limited by archaeological materials and disciplinary developments,the domestication process of yak is still not clear.Here we give an overview on the current status of yak domestication and how it is associated with human settlement on the Tibetan Plateau,from a multidisciplinary perspective mainly involving archaeological and genetic evidence,and also discuss into the possible directions for further studies concerning this issue.At present,the skeletal remains of yak unearthed from archaeological sites on the Tibetan Plateau are very limited.There are only 10 archaeological sites on the Tibetan Plateau where yak remains have been unearthed,among which the domestic yak remains unearthed from the Qugong site are the earliest and the most abundant.Available archaeological studies suggest that yak domestication occurred no earlier than 3750 years ago,and the domestication center might have been located in the Lhasa River valley,southern Tibetan Plateau.However,based on genetic analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear genomes of modern yak,its domestication can be traced back to the middle Holocene,earlier than the time indicated by archaeological evidence,and the inferred domestication center is in Changdu,southeastern Tibetan Plateau.The population size of yak is closely related to the human expansion and settlement on the Tibetan Plateau.Agriculture facilitated permanent human occupation of the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau about 3600 years ago,and a six-fold increase in population size of the domestic yak occurred during the same period.The introgression of cattle genes has a profound impact on the domestication process of yak and is an important source for the genetic diversity of yak.At the same time,the introgression of yak genes related to hypoxic adaptation promoted the adaptation of cattle to extreme environment of the Tibetan Plateau.Although ancient DNA is an ideal link between archaeology and genetics,and has been widely used in many species as a powerful means to study animal domestication,no ancient DNA study on yak has been published.Overall,it is still debatable about the timing,region,and process of yak domestication on the Tibetan Plateau,and there are obvious differences in the results of archaeological and genetic studies,mainly due to the lack of systematic zooarchaeological and ancient DNA study of high-altitude archaeological sites on the Tibetan Plateau.The formation and development of nomadic economy,the permanent settlement and the evolution of human livelihood patterns on the Tibetan Plateau have not been well answered.For future studies,the early hybridization between yak and cattle after cattle were introduced to the Tibetan Plateau will likely enable us to better understand the domestication process of yak and the promoting effect of yak domestication on the survival and establishment of prehistoric human on the Tibetan Plateau.More archaeological investigations,excavations,and zooarchaeological studies involving ZooMS and ancient DNA(both on fossil remains and sediments)studies on the Tibetan Plateau are required before we come to a stage for thoroughly addressing the detailed domestication process of yak.
yakanimal domesticationarchaeologygeneticsancient DNA
陈顺港、高玉、陈宁博、邱强、王昱程、杨晓燕、陈发虎
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中国科学院青藏高原研究所古生态与人类适应团队,北京 100101
中国科学院青藏高原研究所,青藏高原地球系统与资源环境重点实验室,北京 100101
中国科学院大学,北京 100049
西北农林科技大学动物科技学院,陕西省动物遗传育种与繁殖重点实验室,杨凌 712100
西北工业大学生态环境学院,西安 710072
Department of Zoology,University of Cambridge,Cambridge CB2 3EJ,UK
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