Washington and Madrid. Dingoes, native to Australia, look like stray dogs but are genetically different, although they have more similarities with them than with wolves, according to a new study published in Science Advances.
The complete genetic sequence of a wild-born pure Australian desert dingo revealed that these animals are an “intermediate” between wolves and domestic dogs.
Revered by native peoples and hated by ranchers, dingoes have been Australia’s top predator since Tasmanian tigers became extinct last century.
“The position of this species on the scale of evolution has been a matter of disagreement for quite some time,” Bill Ballard, co-author of the study and member of La Trobe and Melbourne universities, told AFP.
Some argue that these slim, tan-colored canines brought to the continent between 5,000 and 8,500 years ago are similar to domestic dogs.
The new study, involving 26 experts from 10 countries, compared the genome of a desert female called sandy, rescued in 2014, with that of five breeds of dogs and with that of the Greenland wolf.
They found that the dingo genome is structurally different from that of the Boxer, German Shepherd, Basenji, Great Dane and Labrador retriever.
It turns out that the genome of sandy It bears more similarities to dogs, especially the German shepherd, than to the Greenland wolf.
Sandy, the desert dingo, is in an intermediate position between the wolf and the domestic dogs”, concluded Ballard. To be more certain, the team performs the genome sequencing of the Alpine dingo, a breed that lives in the Australian Alps, in the east of the country.
Knowing more about the evolution of dingoes can provide information about the history of the peoples who brought them across the sea from Southeast Asia.
“At some point they had to cross water with nomadic peoples,” Ballard said.
“We do not know if they were indigenous Australians or people who came into contact with the original peoples,” added the researcher.
Alpine analysis
When they have finished sequencing the alpine dingo’s genome, the team hopes to learn more about the chronology and clarify whether it was a single or multiple migration.
Like the wolf in North America, dingoes are divisive: idolized by city dwellers and also play an important role in indigenous culture, but hated by farmers because they supposedly kill cattle.
According to Ballard, dingoes evolved to hunt small marsupials and can’t easily digest high-fat foods, so lambs are more likely to be preyed upon by wild dogs or hybrids.
A theory that he hopes to test in the future to rid the dingo of its bad reputation.
He added that one of the key differences between dingoes and dogs is the number of copies of the pancreatic amylase gene each has.
“A pure dingo has only one copy of that gene, while domestic dogs have multiple copies, which we show influences the gut microbiome and, we predict, affects what they eat,” he reiterated.
Ballard said that deciphering the genetic code of the iconic Australian animal was a great advance in the knowledge of this species.
“It gives us a much clearer picture of how it evolved, which is fascinating from a scientific standpoint, but it also opens up all kinds of new ways to take care of its health and ensure its long-term survival,” he said in a statement.
The survival of dingoes is essential to maintain a healthy and balanced ecosystem. “They are Australia’s top predators, which means they influence everything in their environment,” Ballard explained.
“If dingoes don’t receive the protection they deserve, the country’s ecological balance will be upset, which could lead to environmental problems such as erosion and species extinction.”
sandy she was discovered when she was three weeks old on the side of a road in Australia’s central desert, near the Strzelecki Track, with a sister and brother.
The research project became possible after it won the World’s Most Interesting Genome Competition in 2017, which was decided by public vote.
The study, which took five years, was carried out by a research consortium, made up of experts in microbiology, computational biology and veterinary science from countries such as Australia, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the United States and England.
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