Otago Researchers Sequence Kuri Dog Genomes

University of Otago ^ | Thursday, October 8, 2015 | Ms Karen Greig

[SunkenCiv]

The genetic heritage of New Zealand's first dog, the now extinct kuri, is being unravelled by University of Otago scientists using state-of-the-art ancient DNA analysis.

University of Otago PhD student Karen Greig has sequenced the complete, or near complete, mitochondrial genomes of 14 kuri represented by bones recovered from Wairau Bar, one on New Zealand's earliest and most important archaeological sites.

Kuri were smallish dogs about the size of cocker spaniels and were brought to New Zealand from East Polynesia in the colonising canoes that arrived in the early fourteenth century AD. They were the only domesticated animal to be successfully introduced by the Polynesian settlers but died out as a distinct breed after interbreeding with European dogs.

The research team was able to identify five distinct maternal lineages, known as haplotypes, in the 14 dogs.

"This represents quite limited genetic diversity, which either suggests that the founding kuri population may have only been a few dogs or that the arriving dogs were closely related," Ms Greig says.

In the latter instance, the ancestors of these dogs would have likely passed through a series of genetic bottlenecks at times during their movement across the Pacific, she says.

The researchers also discovered that the Wairau Bar dogs are genetically most similar to modern dogs from Indonesia.

Professor Matisoo-Smith says that advances in DNA sequencing technology that enabled the Wairau Bar kuri study can be used in other research to provide deeper insights into ancient origins of Pacific peoples and animals and their migration routes across Oceania.

[SunkenCiv]

This image has Some Rights Reserved. Creative Commons BY-NC-ND -- You may download and use Te Papa's images of this work as long as you meet the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives copyright licence. Fair dealing, as understood under the New Zealand Copyright Act 1994, also applies. Registration Number LM000828; Phylum Chordata; Class Mammalia; Order Carnivora; Family Canidae; Scientific name Canis lupus familiaris; Common / Maori name Kuri, Maori dog; Country collected New Zealand; Precise locality between "Waikava" & Mataura plains, Catlins; Collected by Anderson; Date collected 1876; Section Land Mammals [You must include the attribution credit provided when you download the image.]

[SunkenCiv]

[DannyTN]

Don't mix kuri dogs with gnomes. That's just wrong...

[Gasshog]

Obamas ancestors ate them all up.

[fulltlt]

He’s so cute. I want one after they start cloning them.

[martin_fierro]

Wow. Majestic animal.

** snicker **