Research Group 2: Evolutionary Genetics

Research projects: Evolutionary Genetics (RG 2)

The Sturgeon Project

Restoration of an extinct population is like a jigsaw puzzle with many unknown pieces. Reasons for extinction need to be identified, habitat alterations must be handled and finally the fittest animals have to be selected for the release program. The restoration of sea sturgeon in German waters started in the 1990’s. In a pilot study a trans-Atlantic colonization was discovered based on mtDNA analysis of archived specimens. North American Atlantic sturgeons (Acipenser oxyrinchus) immigrated into Baltic waters during the Middle Ages founding a self-sustaining population, and displaced their European sister species A. sturio. Picturing the founding event, Ursula Arndt (University of Mainz), Norbert Benecke (German Archaeological Institute), Shuichi Matsumura (Gifu University, Japan) and I analysed a set of polymorphic microsatellites and mitochondrial sequences from bony scutes (8th-14th centuries). Our results clearly show that less than 20 sturgeons originating from Canadian Rivers were needed to found the Baltic population. Therefore we chose a broodstock of 50 mature sturgeons caught in those Canadian streams to be an adequate base for a successful restoration project. Currently, the release program is supervised by the Society to Safe the Sturgeon and the Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries. Although our genetic studies did run out in 2007, I still give scientific guidance as member of advisory boards and commissions.  

 
These projects were supported by the DFG (KI 189/11-1 & LU 852/5-1)

The Horse Project

Since Charles Darwin epos "The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication" published in 1868 "domestication research has guided our understanding of evolution and biology" as recently noted in an editorial from Science (Lewin 2009, 324: 478-479). Phenotypes and their underlying genes have been significantly marked by the process of artificial selection to satisfy human needs. Although the origin of domestication was known for most species, the beginning of horse domestication was still unknown when Norbert Benecke (German Archaeological Institute Berlin), Kurt Alt (University of Mainz) and I have started the horse project in 2005. Its major goals are the identification of the source population as well as the detection of time and place of horse domestication. As many researches before, we began with mitochondrial DNA analyses. But in contrast to other domestic species, recent breeds of horses are characterized by a huge variability of mitochondrial DNA (maternal lineages) on the one hand and on the other hand by the absence of any variation at the heterosomal part of the Y-chromosome (paternal lineages). So far, these special features have been blurred the origin of domestic horses. Consequently, our mt DNA analyses failed to solve our major goals. Therefore we changed our strategy in 2007. Since then, we developed genetic tests for the detection of coat colorations in ancient bones from archaeological remains. These analyses are done in cooperation with Michael Hofreiter (MPI Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig; since 2009 University of York) and Monika Reissmann (Humboldt-University Berlin). Our results demonstrate a significant increase of colour variants from pre-domestic horses (bay and black) to early domestic horses (chestnut, tobiano, silver, sabino, buckskin) from West Siberia to Eastern Europe since the Bronze Age. Currently, we are enlarging the number of colour genes and samples focussing on the Ponto-Caspian region. This project is a good example of the power of artificial selection.

Members of the team

Arne Ludwig, Melanie Pruvost, Michael Cieslak & Dietmar Lieckfeldt
 
 

 This project is supported by the DFG (LU 852/6-2 & AL 287/6-2)