STARSET_MirrorFeline genetics help pinpoint first-ever domestication of cats
Nearly 10,000 years ago, humans settling in the Fertile Crescent, the areas of the Middle East surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, made the first switch from hunter-gatherers to farmers. They developed close bonds with the rodent-eating cats that conveniently served as ancient pest-control in society’s first civilizations.
大约1万年前，定居在新月沃土(沃土是中东地区底格里斯河和幼发拉底河周围的地区)的人类首次从狩猎采集者转变为农民。他们与以啮齿动物为食的猫猫建立了密切的关系，这些猫猫在社会最初的文明中方便地充当了古代害虫防治的角色。
A new study at the University of Missouri found this lifestyle transition for humans was the catalyst that sparked the world’s first domestication of cats, and as humans began to travel the world, they brought their new feline friends along with them.
密苏里大学的一项新研究发现，人类生活方式的这种转变是引发世界上第一次驯化猫猫的催化剂，随着人类开始周游世界，他们也带着他们的猫猫一起去了。
Leslie A. Lyons, a feline geneticist and Gilbreath-McLorn endowed professor of comparative medicine in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, collected and analyzed DNA from cats in and around the Fertile Crescent area, as well as throughout Europe, Asia and Africa, comparing nearly 200 different genetic markers.
莱斯利·a·莱昂斯是猫科遗传学家，也是密歇根大学兽医学院的比较医学教授，她收集并分析了新月沃地及其周边地区，以及整个欧洲、亚洲和非洲的猫猫的DNA，比较了近200种不同的遗传标记。
“One of the DNA main markers we studied were microsatellites, which mutate very quickly and give us clues about recent cat populations and breed developments over the past few hundred years,” Lyons said. “Another key DNA marker we examined were single nucleotide polymorphisms, which are single-based changes all throughout the genome that give us clues about their ancient history several thousands of years ago. By studying and comparing both markers, we can start to piece together the evolutionary story of cats.”
莱昂斯说:“我们研究的DNA主要标记之一是微卫星，它变异非常快，为我们提供了过去几百年猫的种群和品种发展的线索。”“我们检查的另一个关键DNA标记是单核苷酸多态性，这是贯穿整个基因组的单基变化，为我们提供了数千年前古代历史的线索。通过研究和比较这两个标记，我们可以开始拼凑猫的进化故事。”
Lyons added that while horses and cattle have seen various domestication events caused by humans in different parts of the world at various times, her analysis of feline genetics in the study strongly supports the theory that cats were likely first domesticated only in the Fertile Crescent before migrating with humans all over the world. After feline genes are passed down to kittens throughout generations, the genetic makeup of cats in western Europe, for example, is now far different from cats in southeast Asia, a process known as ‘isolation by distance.’
莱昂斯补充说，虽然马和牛在世界不同地区的不同时期经历了由人类引起的各种驯化事件，但她在研究中对猫基因的分析有力地支持了这样一种理论，即猫猫在与人类一起迁移到世界各地之前，可能只在新月沃土被驯化。例如，在猫猫的基因代代相传给小猫猫之后，西欧猫的基因构成现在与东南亚猫的基因构成有了很大的不同，这一过程被称为“距离隔离”。
“We can actually refer to cats as semi-domesticated, because if we turned them loose into the wild, they would likely still hunt vermin and be able to survive and mate on their own due to their natural behaviors,” Lyons said. “Unlike dogs and other domesticated animals, we haven’t really changed the behaviors of cats that much during the domestication process, so cats once again prove to be a special animal.”
莱昂斯说:“我们实际上可以把猫猫称为半驯化的猫，因为如果我们把它们放生到野外，它们可能仍然会捕食害虫，由于它们的自然行为，它们仍然能够生存和交配。”“与狗和其他家养动物不同，我们在驯化过程中并没有真正改变猫的行为，所以猫再次被证明是一种特殊的动物。”
Lyons, who has researched feline genetics for more than 30 years, said studies like this also support her broader research goal of using cats as a biomedical model to study genetic diseases that impact both cats and people, such as polycystic kidney disease, blindness and dwarfism.
莱昂斯研究猫的遗传学已经超过30年，她说这样的研究也支持了她更广泛的研究目标，即用猫猫作为生物医学模型来研究影响猫和人的遗传疾病，如多囊肾病、失明和侏儒症。
“Comparative genetics and precision medicine play key roles in the ‘One Health’ concept, which means anything we can do to study the causes of genetic diseases in cats or how to treat their ailments can be useful for one day treating humans with the same diseases,” Lyons said. “I am building genetic tools, genetic resources that ultimately help improve cat health. When building these tools, it is important to get a representative sample and understand the genetic diversity of cats worldwide so that our genetic toolbox can be useful to help cats all over the globe, not just in one specific region.”
莱昂斯说:“比较遗传学和精准医学在‘同一健康’概念中发挥着关键作用，这意味着我们在研究猫猫遗传疾病的原因或如何治疗它们的疾病方面所能做的任何事情，都可能在有朝一日对治疗患有同样疾病的人类有用。”“我正在构建最终有助于改善猫猫健康的遗传工具和遗传资源。在构建这些工具时，获得具有代表性的样本并了解全球猫的遗传多样性非常重要，这样我们的基因工具箱就可以帮助全球各地的猫猫，而不仅仅是某个特定地区的猫猫。”
Throughout her career, Lyons has worked with cat breeders and research collaborators to develop comprehensive feline DNA databases that the scientific community can benefit from, including cat genome sequencing from felines all around the world. In a 2021 study, Lyons and colleagues found that the cat’s genomic structure is more similar to humans than nearly any other non-primate mammal.
在她的职业生涯中，莱昂斯与猫猫饲养者和研究合作者合作，开发了可供科学界受益的全面的猫DNA数据库，包括对世界各地猫猫的基因组测序。在2021年的一项研究中，莱昂斯和同事们发现，猫猫的基因组结构比几乎任何其他非灵长类哺乳动物都更类似于人类。
“Our efforts have helped stop the migration and passing-down of inherited genetic diseases around the world, and one example is polycystic kidney disease, as 38% of Persian cats had this disease when we first launched our genetic test for it back in 2004,” Lyons said. “Now that percentage has gone down significantly thanks to our efforts, and our overall goal is to eradicate genetic diseases from cats down the road.”
莱昂斯说:“我们的努力帮助阻止了遗传基因疾病在世界各地的迁移和传递，其中一个例子是多囊肾病，当我们在2004年首次推出多囊肾病基因测试时，38%的波斯猫患有这种疾病。”“在我们的努力下，现在这一比例已经显著下降，我们的总体目标是在未来根除猫的遗传疾病。”
Currently, the only viable treatment for polycystic kidney disease has unhealthy side effects, including liver failure. Lyons is currently working with researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara to develop a diet-based treatment trial for those suffering from the disease.
目前，多囊肾病唯一可行的治疗方法有不健康的副作用，包括肝功能衰竭。莱昂斯目前正在与加州大学圣巴巴拉分校的研究人员合作，为患有这种疾病的人开发一种基于饮食的治疗试验。
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