Advances in the isolation and sequencing of ancient DNA have begun to reveal the population histories of both people and dogs. Over the last 10,000 y, the genetic signatures of ancient dog remains have been linked with known human dispersals in regions such as the Arctic and the remote Pacific. It is suspected, however, that this relationship has a much deeper antiquity, and that the tandem movement of people and dogs may have begun soon after the domestication of the dog from a gray wolf ancestor in the late Pleistocene. Here, by comparing population genetic results of humans and dogs from Siberia, Beringia, and North America, we show that there is a close correlation in the movement and divergences of their respective lineages. This evidence places constraints on when and where dog domestication took place. Most significantly, it suggests that dogs were domesticated in Siberia by similar to 23,000 y ago, possibly while both people and wolves were isolated during the harsh climate of the Last Glacial Maximum. Dogs then accompanied the first people into the Americas and traveled with them as humans rapidly dispersed into the continent beginning similar to 15,000 y ago.

Dogs have been essential to life in the Siberian Arctic for over 9,500 y, and this tight link between people and dogs continues in Siberian communities. Although Arctic Siberian groups such as the Nenets received limited gene flow from neighboring groups, archaeological evidence suggests that metallurgy and new subsistence strategies emerged in Northwest Siberia around 2,000 y ago. It is unclear if the Siberian Arctic dog population was as continuous as the people of the region or if instead admixture occurred, possibly in relation to the influx of material culture from other parts of Eurasia. To address this question, we sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 20 ancient and historical Siberian and Eurasian Steppe dogs. Our analyses indicate that while Siberian dogs were genetically homogenous between 9,500 to 7,000 y ago, later introduction of dogs from the Eurasian Steppe and Europe led to substantial admixture. This is clearly the case in the Iamal-Nenets region (Northwestern Siberia) where dogs from the Iron Age period (∼2,000 y ago) possess substantially less ancestry related to European and Steppe dogs than dogs from the medieval period (∼1,000 y ago). Combined with findings of nonlocal materials recovered from these archaeological sites, including glass beads and metal items, these results indicate that Northwest Siberian communities were connected to a larger trade network through which they acquired genetically distinctive dogs from other regions. These exchanges were part of a series of major societal changes, including the rise of large-scale reindeer pastoralism ∼800 y ago.

Among Indigenous populations of the Arctic, domestic dogs (Canislupus familiaris) were social actors aiding in traction and subsistence activities. Less commonly, dogs fulfilled a fur-bearing role in both the North American and Siberian Arctic. Examples of garments featuring dog skins were collected during the 19th-20th centuries and are now curated by the National Museum of Denmark. We sequenced the mitochondrial genomes of macroscopically identified dog skin garments. We conducted stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio analysis of the dog furs and of fur samples from contemporaneous pelts of Arctic (C. lupus arctos) and grey (C. lupus) wolves. Despite the presence of biocides used to protect the fur clothing during storage, we extracted well-preserved DNA using a minimally-invasive sampling protocol. Unexpectedly, the mtDNA genomes of one-third of the samples were consistent with wild taxa, rather than domestic dogs. The strong marine component in the diets of North American dogs distinguished them from Greenland and Canadian wolves, but Siberian dogs consumed diets that were isotopically similar to wild species. We found that dog provisioning practices were variable across the Siberian and North American Arctic, but in all cases, involved considerable human labor.

Although sled dogs are one of the most specialized groups of dogs, their origin and evolution has received much less attention than many other dog groups. We applied a genomic approach to investigate their spatiotemporal emergence by sequencing the genomes of 10 modern Greenland sled dogs, an similar to 9500-year-old Siberian dog associated with archaeological evidence for sled technology, and an similar to 33,000-year-old Siberian wolf. We found noteworthy genetic similarity between the ancient dog and modern sled dogs. We detected gene flow from Pleistocene Siberian wolves, but not modern American wolves, to present-day sled dogs. The results indicate that the major ancestry of modern sled dogs traces back to Siberia, where sled dog-specific haplotypes of genes that potentially relate to Arctic adaptation were established by 9500 years ago.

Background: After over a decade of developments in field collection, laboratory methods and advances in high-throughput sequencing, contamination remains a key issue in ancient DNA research. Currently, human and microbial contaminant DNA still impose challenges on cost-effective sequencing and accurate interpretation of ancient DNA data.

Results: Here we investigate whether human contaminating DNA can be found in ancient faunal sequencing datasets. We identify variable levels of human contamination, which persists even after the sequence reads have been mapped to the faunal reference genomes. This contamination has the potential to affect a range of downstream analyses.

Conclusions: We propose a fast and simple method, based on competitive mapping, which allows identifying and removing human contamination from ancient faunal DNA datasets with limited losses of true ancient data. This method could represent an important tool for the ancient DNA field.

The Siberian and North American Arctic have both borne witness to numerous migrations of humans and with them their dogs. This PhD thesis is based on whole genome data from 22 Siberian dogs and 72 North American Arctic dogs, in addition to 186 mitochondrial genomes Siberian and North American Arctic dogs. Mitochondrial genome data allowed for the identification of migration events that introduced distinct dog populations to North America, associated with different cultural complexes arriving to the region. A novel mitochondrial clade was also identified in dogs from eastern Siberia and Alaska. Genetic analysis was performed to confirm the macroscopic identification of fur used to make clothing in the Arctic in conjunction with stable isotope analyses to explore dietary differences of dog populations across the circumpolar region. The whole genome data generated for this PhD also detected and explored evidence for several gene flow events from West Eurasian dogs into the dogs of Siberia starting 10,900 BP. There was an additional gene flow event that introduced Near East related ancestry to the dogs of the Siberian Steppe before the Late Bronze Age. Dogs carrying this West Eurasian ancestry spread throughout Siberia, reaching northwestern Siberia by the Iron Age, by 2,000 BP. Further gene flow was detected later in Siberia from West Eurasia a thousand years later. North American Arctic dogs universally carry the Near East related ancestry that is seen in Siberian dogs starting in the Bronze Age, showing it had reached the Bering Strait before the ancestors of the Inuit departed Siberia for Alaska. Once in North America Inuit dogs experienced several other gene flow events from pre-contact subarctic dogs, modern European dogs, and wolves. The population structure seen in North American Arctic dogs reflects geography and the subsequent isolation as well as population turnover events associated with catastrophic epidemics in the dog populations. Finally, a simple method was developed to evaluate and remove human contamination from ancient DNA datasets originating from faunal taxa. All together this thesis has compiled genomic information from 94 Arctic dogs to shed light upon the genetic history of these dogs from the early Holocene through to the present day. This dataset has been able to provide insight not only into past dynamics of Arctic dogs but also a much needed resource for understanding and preserving the indigenous dog populations still present in the Arctic that face continued challenges of globalisation and climate change.

Där har varit många migrationer av människor, och med dem deras hundar, i de sibiriska och nordamerikanska delarna av Arktis. Denna doktorsavhandling är baserad på hela genomdata från 22 sibiriska hundar och 72 nordamerikanska arktiska hundar, samt 186 mitokondriella genom från arktiska hundar från Sibirien och Nordamerika. De mitokondriella genomen möjliggjorde identifiering av migrationer av hundar som introducerade distinkta populationer till Nordamerika, associerade med olika kulturella komplex som anlände till regionen. En ny mitokondriell klad identifierades också hos hundar från östra Sibirien och Alaska. Genetiska analyser utfördes för att bekräfta den makroskopiska identifieringen av päls som användes för att göra kläder i Arktis tillsammans med stabila isotopanalyser för att undersöka dietskillnaderna hos hundpopulationer i den cirkumpolära regionen. Hela genomdata som genererats i denna avhandling upptäckte och undersökte bevis för flera genflöden från västra -eurasiska hundar till sibiriska hundar med början för 10 900 B.P. Det fanns ytterligare ett genflöde före den sena bronsåldern som introducerade börd från Främre Orienten till hundar från den sibiriska stäppen. Hundar som bär denna väst-eurasiska härkomst spred sig över Sibirien och hade nått de nordvästra delarna vid tiden för järnålderns början. Ytterligare genflöde upptäcktes senare i Sibirien från Västeurasien med början för 1 000 år sedan. De arktiska hundarna från Nordamerika har samma börd från Främre Orienten som ses i de sibiriska hundarna i början av bronsåldern, vilket visar att detta genflöde hade nått Berings sund innan förfäderna till inuiterna lämnade Sibirien för Alaska. När de hade nått Nordamerika upplevde de inuitiska hundarna flera andra genflöden från för-kontakt subarktiska hundar, moderna europeiska hundar och vargar. Befolkningsstrukturen i de arktiska hundarna från Nordamerika återspeglar geografi och den efterföljande isoleringen, samt befolkningsomsättningar förknippade med katastrofala epidemier i hundpopulationerna. Slutligen utvecklades en enkel metod för att utvärdera och ta bort mänskliga kontamineringar från gammalt DNA som härrör från fauna. Sammantaget har denna avhandling sammanställt genomisk information från 94 arktiska hundar för att belysa den genetiska historien för dessa hundar från tidigt Holocen till nutid. Dessa data har kunnat ge insikter i den historiska dynamiken hos arktiska hundar, samt också tjäna som en välbehövlig resurs för att förstå och bevara de inhemska hundpopulationer som fortfarande finns i Arktis och som står inför fortsatta utmaningar av globalisering och klimatförändringar.

Domestic dogs have been central to life in the North American Arctic for millennia. The ancestors of the Inuit were the first to introduce the widespread usage of dog sledge transportation technology to the Americas, but whether the Inuit adopted local Palaeo-Inuit dogs or introduced a new dog population to the region remains unknown. To test these hypotheses, we generated mitochondrial DNA and geometric morphometric data of skull and dental elements from a total of 922 North American Arctic dogs and wolves spanning over 4500 years. Our analyses revealed that dogs from Inuit sites dating from 2000 BP possess morphological and genetic signatures that distinguish them from earlier Palaeo-Inuit dogs, and identified a novel mitochondrial clade in eastern Siberia and Alaska. The genetic legacy of these Inuit dogs survives today in modern Arctic sledge dogs despite phenotypic differences between archaeological and modern Arctic dogs. Together, our data reveal that Inuit dogs derive from a secondary pre-contact migration of dogs distinct from Palaeo-Inuit dogs, and probably aided the Inuit expansion across the North American Arctic beginning around 1000 BP.