2025-08-28 フランス国立科学研究センター(CNRS)
© Ludovic Orlando
<関連情報>
- https://www.cnrs.fr/en/press/animal-domestication-key-mutation-behind-horse-based-mobility-identified
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp4581
馬におけるGSDMC遺伝子座での選択圧とそのヒトの運動能力への示唆 Selection at the GSDMC locus in horses and its implications for human mobility
Xuexue Liu, Yaozhen Jia, Jianfei Pan, Yanli Zhang, […] , and Ludovic Orlando
Science Published;28 Aug 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adp4581
Editor’s summary
Since their invention in the early 20th century, cars have rapidly taken over the human world of transportation. For thousands of years before that, the speedy movement and burdensome tasks of humans were facilitated by horses. Humans involved in this early relationship played a role in shaping horses to be the fast, strong, and relatively tame creatures they are today. Looking for signatures of selection across a suite of key traits, Liu et al. found shifts in markers related to behavior and body conformation at around 5000 years ago, reflecting patterns of domestication (see the Perspective by Frantz). —Sacha Vignieri
Abstract
Horsepower revolutionized human history through enhanced mobility, transport, and warfare. However, the suite of biological traits that reshaped horses during domestication remains unclear. We scanned an extensive horse genome time series for selection signatures at 266 markers associated with key traits. We detected a signature of positive selection at ZFPM1—known to be a modulator of behavior in mice—occurring ~5000 years ago (ya), suggesting that taming was one of the earliest steps toward domestication of horses. Intensive selection at GSDMC began ~4750 ya with the domestication bottleneck, leading regulatory variants to high frequency by ~4150 ya. GSDMC genotypes are linked to body conformation in horses and to spinal anatomy, motor coordination, and muscular strength in mice. Our results suggest that selection on standing variation at GSDMC was crucial for the emergence of horses that could facilitate fast mobility in human societies ~4200 ya.
