863 genomes reveal the origin and domestication of chicken

Despite the substantial role that chickens have played in human societies across the world, both the geographic and temporalorigins of their domestication remain controversial. To address this issue, we analyzed 863 genomes from a worldwide sampling ofchickens and representatives of all four species of wild jungle fowl and each of thefive subspecies of red jungle fowl (RJF). Ourstudy suggests that domestic chickens were initially derived from the RJF subspeciesGallus gallus spadiceuswhose present-daydistribution is predominantly in southwestern China, northern Thailand and Myanmar. Following their domestication, chickenswere translocated across Southeast and South Asia where they interbred locally with both RJF subspecies and other jungle fowlspecies. In addition, our results show that the White Leghorn chicken breed possesses a mosaic of divergent ancestries inheritedfrom other subspecies of RJF. Despite the strong episodic geneflow from geographically divergent lineages of jungle fowls, ouranalyses show that domestic chickens undergo genetic adaptations that underlie their unique behavioral, morphological andreproductive traits. Our study provides novel insights into the evolutionary history of domestic chickens and a valuable resource tofacilitate ongoing genetic and functional investigations of the world’s most numerous domestic animal.