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Principal Investigator (PI): Dr
Peter Savolainen
| Summary and objectives |
Background
This group has worked extensively with sequence analysis
of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from mainly domestic dogs,
but also wolves and humans. The genetic variation has
been studied with two main objectives: to draw population
genetic conclusions and to evaluate its value for forensic
use. We have also worked with development of forensic
DNA analysis methods. |
Origin and history of the domestic dog
Several 10-15,000 year old archaeological finds in Eastern
Europe and the Middle East of domestic dog-looking canids
indicate that the dog was the first domestic animal. Apart
from this, however, archaeological studies have not produced
any detailed facts about the origin of the domestic dog.
Such basic questions as the number of founding events,
and where and when these occurred, have remained unsolved.
To address these questions we initiated a study of mtDNA
sequence variation among domestic dogs, based on our comprehensive
collection of more than 1,000 DNA samples from dogs from
most parts of the world. We could thereby show that the
geographic variation of mtDNA among domestic dogs indicate
that the dog originates from East Asia, probably about
15,000 years ago (9, note link to article). We are now
refining the results of this study by analysing more individuals
from some important geographic regions. This will give
a more precise place of origin and dating of the first
origin of the dog, and will show by what routes dogs spread
from East Asia to the other parts of the world. We have
also, in a recent article, given a detailed picture of
the origin of the Australian dingo (10). We could show
that the dingo originates from domesticated dogs, originally
from East Asia, which came in small numbers to Australia
approximately 5,000 years ago. We are now turning to analysis
also of the Y chromosome and of autosomal markers, in
order to get a more complete picture of the genetic history
of the dog. We will test whether the history of male and
female lines are congruent, and the number of male founders
of the dog and dingo populations and their geographic
origin will be determined, and the influence of later
crossings of female dogs with male wolves for the formation
of local morphologic types of dog breeds, e.g. some Arctic
breeds, will be studied. In order to explain our population-genetic
work to the dog interested public, we have written some
popular-science articles describing our studies of the
geographic origin of the domestic dog (23, 24, 25). |
Forensics
Based on the genetic information from our population genetic
studies, forensic techniques for the analysis of mtDNA
from dogs and wolves have been developed (5, 8). These
methods have been used in forensic casework for the analysis
of dog and wolf hairs, using the population studies as
a reference (5, 18). We have recently written an article
describing the correlation between mtDNA types and breeds
of dogs, and its potential for forensic analyses (13).
Techniques using nuclear Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms
(SNPs) for forensic analyses of human, as well as canine,
samples are now under development, aiming at improving
analysis of hair samples. The methods are based on multiplex
PCR and chip-based SNP-analysis. |
Mitochondrial repeats
This group has also in detail studied a hypervariable
repetitive unit in canine mtDNA. The extreme genetic variation
has been studied both in pedigrees and in the dog population.
The mechanisms creating the extreme genetic variation
were analyzed and the possibility of using this region
for forensic analysis was shown (7, 8). |
Positions available
Postdoc
position available!
There are several opportunities for “examensarbete”
in this group, both for dog population genetics and
forensic method develoment.
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| Publications |
| Refereed
articles |
| 1. |
Holgersson
S, Karlsson JA, Kihlgren A, Rosen B, Savolainen P, Gyllensten
U. Fluorescent-based typing of the two short tandem
repeat loci HUMTH01 and HUMACTBP2: reproducibility of size
measurements and genetic variation in the Swedish population.
Electrophoresis. 1994:15,890-895. |
| 2. |
Sajantila A, Salem
A-H, Savolainen P, Bauer K, Gierig C and Pääbo
S. Paternal and maternal DNA lineages reveal a bottleneck
in the founding of the Finnish population. Proc. Natl.
Acad. Sci. USA 1996:93,12035-12039. |
| 3. |
Ellegren H, Savolainen
P and Rosén B. The genetical history of an
isolated population of the endangered grey wolf Canis
lupus: a study of nuclear and mitochondrial polymorphisms.
Phil. Trans. R Soc. Lond. B. 1996:352,1161-1169. |
| 4. |
Vilà C, Savolainen
P, Maldonado JE, Amorim IR, Rice JE, Honeycutt RL, Crandal
KA, Lundeberg J and Wayne RK. Multiple and ancient
origin of the domestic dog. Science 1997:276,1687-1689. |
5. |
Savolainen P, Rosén
B, Holmberg A, Leitner T, Uhlén M and Lundeberg J.
Analysis of domestic dog mitochondrial DNA for forensic
use. J. Forensic Sci. 1997:42,593-600. |
| 6. |
Savolainen P and Lundeberg
J. Forensic evidence based on mtDNA from Dog Hairs.
J. Forensic Sci. 1999:44,77-81. |
7. |
Savolainen P, Arvestad
L, Lundeberg J. mtDNA tandem repeats in domestic
dogs and wolves: mutation mechanism studied by analysis
of the sequence of imperfect repeats. Mol. Biol. Evol.
2000:17,474-488. |
8. |
Savolainen P, Arvestad
L, Lundeberg J. A novel method for forensic DNA investigations,
based on repeat type sequence analysis of domestic dog mtDNA.
J Forensic Sci. 2000:45,990-999. |
9. |
Savolainen P, Zhang
Y-P, Luo J, Lundeberg J, Leitner T. Genetic evidence
for an East Asian origin of domestic dogs. Science
2002:298,1610-1613. Link
to abstract and full article |
| 10. |
Savolainen P, Leitner
T, Wilton A, Matisoo-Smith E, Lundeberg J. A detailed
picture of the origin of the Australian dingo, obtained
from the study of mitochondrial DNA. Proc. Natl. Acad.
Sci. USA 2004:101,12387-12390. |
11. |
Tellgren Å, Berglund
AC, Savolainen P, Janis CM, Liberles DA. Myostatin
rapid sequence evolution in ruminants predates domestication.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2004:33:782-790. |
12. |
Fitzsimmons CJ, Savolainen
P, Amini B, Hjälm G, Lundeberg J, Andersson L.
Detection of sequence polymorphisms in red junglefowl and
White Leghorn ESTs. Anim Genet. 2004:35,391-396. |
13. |
Angleby H, Savolainen
P. A study of the forensic usefulness of the mitochondrial
DNA variation among and within populations, breeds and types
of domestic dogs. Forensic Sci Int. 2005:154,99-110 |
14. |
Savolainen P, Fitzsimmons
CJ, Arvestad L, Andersson L, Lundeberg J. ESTs from
brain and testis of White Leghorn and red junglefowl: annotation,
bioinformatic classification of unknown transcripts and
analysis of expression levels. Cytogenet. Genome Res
2005:111,79-87. |
15. |
Coward K, Ponting CP,
Chang H-Y, Hibbitt O, Savolainen P, Jones KT, Parrington
J. Phospholipase C zeta, the trigger of egg activation
in mammals, is present in a non-mammalian species. Reproduction
2005:130,157-63. |
16. |
Ka S, Fitzsimmons C,
Jacobsson L, Savolainen P, Lundeberg J, Siegel PB, Andersson
L, Hallbook F. Expression analysis of growth and
energy regulation-associated genes in two divergent chicken
strains. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 2005:1040,357-9. |
17. |
Arvestad L, Visa N,
Lundeberg J, Wieslander L, Savolainen P. ESTs from
midgut and an epithelial cell line of Chironomus tentans:
annotation, bioinformatic classification of unknown transcripts
and analysis of expression levels. Insect Mol Biol.
2005:14,689-95. |
| Book chapter |
18. |
Savolainen P and Lundeberg
J. Dog genetic data and forensic evidence. In: Eds.
Ruvinsky A, Sampson J. The Genetics of the dog.
2001. CABI Publishing, New York. |
19. |
Savolainen P.
mtDNA studies of the origin of dogs. In: Eds. Ostrander
EA, Giger U, Lindbladh-Toh K. The dog and its genome.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York. |
20. |
Savolainen P.
Domestication of dogs. In: Ed. Jensen P. The behavioural
biology of dogs. CABI Publishing, New York: in press. |
| Computer program |
21. |
Arvestad L and Savolainen
P. Binary Repeat Align: Software for comparing marked
repeats under a model including replication slippage. Source
code (under the Gnu Public License) is distributed over
WWW at http://repeatalign.cgb.ki.se, where also online analysis
can be done through a Web-based interface. |
22. |
Arvestad L and Savolainen
P. estzmate: Finding coding ESTs using a Z-score
approach. Source code available from http://www.nada.kth.se/~arve/estzmate
under the GNU Public Licence. |
| Popular science |
23. |
Cederlund B and Savolainen
P. Från Asiatisk varg till både pekingeser
och schäfer. Hundsport 2003:9,18-22. |
24. |
Savolainen P.
Asien – die Wiege aller Hunde? Studie über den
Ursprung der Hunde. Teil 1/2. Hundemagazin WUFF
2004:3,38-41 |
25. |
Savolainen P.
Asien – die Wiege aller Hunde? Studie über den
Ursprung der Hunde. Teil 2/2. Hundemagazin WUFF
2004:4,42-45 |
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