Geographic distribution of haplogroups
Figs. 2 and 3 show the haplogroup distributions in 80 breeds from Europe, Asia and Africa. Remarkably, there is clear difference between the ancient and modern DNA samples. All five haplogroups were detected in ancient goat samples from Southeast Europe and southwest Asia (Fig. 3A). In contrast, we observe a strong geographic differentiation of domestic goats:
  1. Haplogroup Y1B is predominant in central and northern Europe, but outside Europe and North Africa it has only been found in one Ugandan Karamonja goat, in the Korean native breed and in exported Saanen populations.
  2. In northern and central Europe Y2A is only found in a single French des Fossés sample and together with Y1AA in the crossbred Anglo-Nubian. It is the predominant haplogroup in Spain, Anatolia and Africa south of the Sahara, but it is not found in China and Southeast Asia except in about 20% of the goats in the Philippines and Sulawesi. Remarkably, most Y2A haplotypes on Madagascar are more related to Asian than to continental-African Y2A haplotypes.
  3. Y2B is absent in Europe, continental Africa and west Asia, but is a major haplotype in east and southeast Asia. It is also observed in one Malagasy Diana sheep.
  4. Y1AA is in Europe only represented by three haplotypes in the local Ciocara breed and the island Montecristo population (Somenzi et al., 2022). The Italian haplotypes are outside the cluster of closely related south-Asian and southeast-African Y1AA haplotypes (Figs. 2, S2).
  5. The available data suggest a contrast of Y1AB dominating in northern China and Y1AA with Y2B in the south.