Y-chromosomal haplogroups from wild and domestic goats reveal ancient migrations and recent introgressions

By its paternal transmission, Y-chromosomal haplotypes are sensitive markers of population history and male-mediated introgression. We used whole-genome sequences (WGSs) of 386 domestic goats from 75 modern breeds and 7 wild goat species generated by the VarGoats goat genome project. Phylogenetic analyses indicated five domestic haplogroups Y1AA, Y1AB, Y1B, Y2A and Y2B. Haplogroup distributions for 180 domestic breeds indicate ancient paternal population bottlenecks during the migration into northern Europe, southern Asia and Africa. Sharing of haplogroups reveals male-mediated introgressions: from Asia into Madagascar and, more recently, into the South-African Boer goat; then from this breed into other southeastern African goats; and from Europe into native Korean and Ugandan goats. This study illustrates the power of the Y-chromosomal variation for the reconstructing the history of domestic species with a wide geographic range.