Origins of Polynesian Pigs Revealed by Mitochondrial Whole Genome Ancient DNA

Abstract

Domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) were first transported to Polynesia through a series of long-distance voyages ultimately linked to the Neolithic expansion of Austronesian-speaking people out of Asia. The descendants of the founding pigs belong to a rare mtDNA group referred to as the “Pacific Clade” that may have originated in peninsular or island Southeast Asia. We report the first whole genome mtDNA from domestic pigs from any of the remote islands of the Pacific. In this brief report, we describe the close link we discovered between ancient mtDNA from archaeological specimens from across Polynesia and from that of modern pigs in northern peninsular Southeast Asia, specifically southern China’s Yunnan Province. More complete mtDNA coverage in commensal animals is necessary to improve our picture of the settlement of Polynesia (ca. 2800–700 years before the present) and specify the route, or routes, that pigs took from northern peninsular Southeast Asia.

Keywords

• pig domestication
• archaeology
• ancient DNA
• Polynesia
• long-distance voyaging