Genetic analysis of Thai cattle reveals a Southeast Asian indicine ancestry

Introduction

Following the completion of the bovine genome, genome-wide studies have been conducted to catalog genetic variants, e.g., the bovine Hapmap project. Bovine genetic studies have been conducted extensively among European and taurine cattle (Beja-Pereira et al., 2006; Dadi et al., 2014; Gautier, Laloe & Moazami-Goudarzi, 2010; Gorbach et al., 2010; Lee et al., 2014; McTavish et al., 2013; Speller et al., 2013; Suh et al., 2014). However, little is known about Asian cattle, which are predominantly Bos indicus. Recently, a worldwide study of bovines including Asian Bos indicus breeds from India, Pakistan, China and Indonesia showed evidence of Bos javanicus ancestry that contributes to Asian bovine diversity (Decker et al., 2014). However, no one has yet investigated the ancestry of Thai cattle, and the domestication of bovine in Southeast Asia is poorly understood (Larson & Fuller, 2014). Therefore, to address this question, further study of Asian Bos indicus breeds is needed.

Cattle native to Thailand (excluding recently introduced European breeds) have Bos indicus traits, including the distinctive dorsal hump. However, to our knowledge, there has been no formal genetic testing that these cattle are Bos indicus. Genetic variation of native Thai bovines has been studied using different marker types, i.e., STR (Jirajaroenrat, Boonwong & Tuntivisoottikul, 2008a), mitochondrial DNA (Jirajaroenrat, Satitmanwiwat & Tuntivisoottikul, 2008b; Kornphan et al., 2012; Sarataphan et al., 2013), and SNPs (Charoensook et al., 2011; Edea et al., 2013). However, none of these studies provide any information of the origins and ancestries of these cattle, since the markers used are insufficiently informative. The earliest evidence of domestic cattle in Thailand dates from 4000 to 5000 B.C.E (MacHugh, 1996). There are four native breeds officially recognized by the department of livestock, ministry of agriculture, Thailand, namely Kho-Khaolumpoon (northern Thailand origin, THR), Kho-Isaan (northeastern Thailand, THNE), Kho-Lan (central Thailand, THC) and Kho-Chon (southern Thailand, THS) (Fig. 1). According to folklore, these breeds may have originated from different regions of Thailand. To our knowledge, there is no historical evidence of any domestication event for these breeds, and so it is unclear if they can be distinguished as breeds in the accepted sense. A breed can be defined as a group of individuals with shared distinctive phenotypic traits and a genetic signature that distinguishes them from other breeds. The phenotypic traits of Thai cattle that are breed characteristics include coat color and body size. THNE coat colors vary from red, black, brown, white to yellow. They have the smallest body size of all Thai breeds. THC and THR have body sizes similar to THNE. The THR breed is considered to possess traits suitable for presentation in the Thai royal plough day ceremony (early May of every year), which may have been performed since the Sukhothai era (13th Century CE). THS coat colors are light/dark brown and black. THS are mainly used as draught animals owing to their large body size relative to other Thai breeds. These Thai cattle are well adapted to the tropical environment, e.g., heat tolerance and resistance to ectoparasites (Akkahart, 2003; Charoensook et al., 2011; Kahi, 2004; Khamkwan et al., 2012a; Khamkwan et al., 2012b; Saithong, Chatchawan & Boonyanuwat, 2011). Notwithstanding these breed characteristics, it is unknown if these four Thai native breeds can be distinguished genetically as breeds, and what their possible origins could be in relation to other cattle.

In this work, we present a population genetics study of 28 individuals sampled from the four Thai native breeds. Genotyping data were obtained using the Illumina BovineSNP50K chip array platform. These data were analyzed together with 1,369 worldwide cattle from 88 breeds previously published (Decker et al., 2014).

Materials and Methods

Results and Discussion

We used four different approaches to ascertain the population structure and genetic identities of Thai native cattle. First, pairwise comparisons of all breeds were performed using Fst analysis. In this analysis, the Thai individuals were placed into one group as we have no prior evidence that the four breeds are actually genetically distinct groups. The Thai cattle are clearly identified as Bos indicus (Fig. 2). Next, to discern in more detail the relationship of Thai to other indicine cattle, NJ tree analysis was performed. Thai cattle occupy a position in the tree among other Southeast Asian indicine breeds (PES, ACE, BRE, MAD, and BALI) with 100% bootstrap support (Fig. 3). In particular, PES and ACE breeds are on a node closer to Thai than BRE, MAD and BALI. The BRE and MAD breeds are Bos indicus with considerable Bos javanicus ancestry (represented by BALI) (Decker et al., 2014). Hence, Thai cattle are less likely to have admixture of Bos javanicus. Although the Thai cattle occupy a distinct position in the tree with their Southeast Asian neighbors, there is ambiguity in the relationship to other Asian indicine breeds (RSIN, DHA, KAN, and SAHW) as shown by the nodes with weaker support (<80%).

We tested the hypothesis that cattle breeds define genetically homogenous subpopulations of individuals using a clustering approach that is blind to the breed information. This approach, implemented using the ipPCA algorithm, identified 96 genetically distinct subpopulations (Table S5). The majority of these subpopulations have strong bootstrap supports in ipPCA, which in the main comprise individuals with the same breed label. However, a direct correspondence between breeds and genetically homogenous subpopulations does not always exist. For example, SP28, SP29 and SP30 comprise individuals from the same NORM breed (see Fig. S2). Moreover, some confidently assigned (≥95% bootstrap) subpopulations comprise individuals with different breed labels, including SP4-9, SP11-13, SP15, SP18-33, SP35-40, SP42-60, SP62-64, SP68-76, SP79-81, SP89, SP90, SP93, SP95, and SP96. Genetically distinct subpopulations among individuals of the same breed may arise from drift, particularly for breeds that were established a long time ago. Conversely, breeds with recent common ancestry may not be distinguished as genetically distinct subpopulations with the genetic markers available. Although ipPCA assignments were robust in the main, some subpopulations had weak bootstrap support (≤80%) indicating that assignments of these individuals are inaccurate. The inaccuracy in cluster assignment by ipPCA for these subpopulations reflects the weak bootstrap support of the same individuals in the NJ tree, e.g., SP85-87 contain individuals from South Asian breeds (THA, RSIN, HAR, KAN, CHO, DAJ, LOH, and ACH). Cluster assignment of Southeast Asian breeds from Indonesia is also somewhat inaccurate in that only ACE (SP91) is likely to be a genetically distinct group (88% bootstrap support).

Thai cattle were assigned to SP88, SP89, and SP90. THS and THNE individuals comprise SP89 and SP90 respectively, which were assigned with strong bootstrap support (≥95%). In contrast, SP88 comprises individuals from three Thai breeds, THC, THNE, and THR with weaker bootstrap support. Therefore, three distinct subpopulations can be resolved among the Thai cattle. It is interesting to note that THR, which is revered as a Thai cultural icon, is genetically similar to other Thai cattle (THNE and THC). The only Thai breed that appears as genetically distinct group is THS.

Ancestry was determined by ADMIXTURE analysis. At K = 2 modeled ancestors, the major ancestral component of taurine cattle is clearly distinct from the major component of indicine cattle (Fig. 4A). Taurine cattle were assigned predominantly to SP12–SP53 by ipPCA, and they share a major ancestral component (red). In contrast, ipPCA subpopulations SP64–SP94 comprise indicine individuals that share the other major ancestral component (yellow). Individuals of hybrid breeds, e.g., Beefmaster (BEFM) assigned to SP54, exhibit both ancestral components. According to the cross-validation calculation in ADMIXTURE, K = 55 has the lowest cross-validation error and thus it is a suitable number of ancestral components for the entire population dataset (Fig. S1A). Patterns specific to each subpopulation are apparent at K = 55, in particular the groups with assigned European taurine individuals. Within the subpopulations containing mostly indicine individuals, the individuals within SP88–SP94 share a unique major ancestral component.

Having shown that Thai cattle are indicine, we investigated ancestry patterns within the indicine cattle in greater detail by performing ADMIXTURE on the indicine cattle only. According to the cross-validation calculation in ADMIXTURE, K = 11 is a suitable number of ancestral components for the indicine sub-dataset (Fig. S1B). The Southeast Asian ACE, PES and Thai cattle shared a major ancestral component (dark blue) distinct from other indicine, including MAD and BRE Southeast Asian cattle (Fig. 4B). This result is in agreement with the NJ tree shown in Fig. 2, in which MAD and BRE are distinct from other Southeast Asian cattle because of Bos javanicus admixture. Among the Thai cattle, the THS have the least admixture of other components. The distinctiveness of the THS individuals could be the result of cryptic relatedness, since IBD scores are markedly higher than 0.1 (Table S5). Sampling of relatives is not congruent with the ADMIXTURE model assumption that individuals are independent (Alexander, Novembre & Lange, 2009). To reduce the possible effect of cryptic relatedness among Thai individuals, we performed another set of ADMIXTURE analyses in which indicine cattle were analyzed with a single Thai individual, and repeated for all 28 Thai cattle. In these analyses, the optimal K inferred from cross-validation error was K = 8 for all 28 experiments of ADMIXTURE (Fig. S1C). From the NJ analysis and earlier ADMIXTURE analyses, we used the assumption that the major ancestral component of ACE and PES individuals was shared with the Thai cattle. The variation of this Southeast Asian ancestry among the Thai individuals in shown in Fig. 4C. The THS individuals have a markedly greater proportion (0.65–0.77) of Southeast Asian ancestry from the others (THC, THR, and THNE), such that THS can be considered as a genetically distinct breed. It should be noted that the sampling of THS and other Thai cattle is rather low and could be biased. Therefore, the conclusion about the uniqueness of these cattle must take this caveat into account. The uniqueness of the Southeast Asian cattle is perhaps somewhat surprising given the known ascertainment bias of SNP markers toward taurine breeds (Matukumalli et al., 2009; McTavish et al., 2013). This is obvious from our admixture analysis in which the Bison bison and Bos javanicus are indistinguishable from indicine breeds at low numbers of K ancestors (K = 2–5; Dataset S2).

In conclusion, Thai cattle are indicine that are most closely related to other Southeast Asian breeds. The Kho-Chon variety (THS) appears to be a distinct breed with minimal admixture. All other Thai and Southeast Asian cattle show evidence of admixture. However, this claim must be tempered against the limitation of the data available, in particular the marker platform and sampling of individuals. Moreover, the weak bootstrap support from NJ tree and ipPCA clustering among South Asian indicine breeds further points to lack of power to differentiate indicine breeds. Future studies into bovine genetic diversity should include whole genome sequencing to discover new variants among indicine breeds. Kho-Chon Thai cattle are of particular interest for further genomic study into the Southeast Asian Bos indicus ancestor.

Supplemental Information