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New DNA Research Reveals the Origins of Northern Native Breeds

Date: 2022.09.28

In the picture above, Eve Rannamäe is analyzing ancient DNA. Old samples can be difficult to analyze because the DNA is partially damaged. Image: Matthew von Tersch

What did cows look like 600 years ago? And how did they get to the northern parts of the Nordic region? In the project 3MC –Nordic Mountain Cattle, which is led by NordGen, an international research team compares modern DNA samples with samples from the past.

The historical DNA samples come from cattle that grazed the forest meadows in the northern parts of the Nordics hundreds or even thousands of years before pedigrees and breeding plans came into use.

“It’s as if DNA speaks to us. It can tell a lot about the animals and what they were like in ancient times; ancient DNA can reveal secrets about the genetic variations, adaptions and mutations that have occurred over the course of the centuries. But old samples can be difficult to analyze because the DNA has been partially damaged,” says Weldenegodguad Melak, researcher and bioinformatician at the Natural Resources Center of Finland and one of the participants in the 3MC project.

Auli Bläuer gathered samples at museums in the northern parts of Sweden. Bläuer (left) and Lars Backman from Norrbotten’s museum sample cattle bones. Photo: Emma Boman

Jurassic Park?

Anna Maria Johansson, docent in population genetics at SLU, agrees that the challenge with old DNA is that sequences can be missing:

“It’s like a puzzle that is missing pieces. But we’re not trying to recreate the animals like in Jurassic Park. We are happy with reading the information available without filling in the blanks.”

Johansson has previously analyzed the DNA of Swedish native cattle breeds. Among other things, she is researching how closely related the Swedish fjällko are to the other Swedish breeds such as rödkulla, ringamålako, väneko and bohuskulla. Some of the samples analyzed in the 3MC project come from fjällnära, which are considered to be unbred individuals of Swedish fjällras.

“I can see that samples from fjällnära are different from Swedish fjällras. We already knew long ago that mountain cows have genes that control whether the milk is good for making cheese. Now we know that even those near the mountains have a high frequency of these gene variants. It will be exciting to see how Fjällnara compares to the rest of the old Swedish samples.

Old types of cattle

Johansson says that there are many reasons to find out more about the history of cattle.

Through the DNA results, it is possible to understand more about how the cows came to the Northern parts of the Nordic countries and whether the animals, that lived hundreds of years ago, are related to the native breeds of today.

“It is important to understand what the genetic variation looks like in our farm animals and what it has looked like historically. If we want to preserve the breeds, it is good to know as much as possible about them,” says Johansson and continues:

“But above all, it is an exciting topic and I hope that the results will get some attention. It should be of interest to the public that we still have old types of cattle in the northern parts of the Nordic countries, which differ from the cows further south in Europe.

FACTS

The bones that are analyzed are usually teeth or limb bones. The Swedish bones were found in Luleå, Piteå, Skellefteå and Vilhelmina and the project has gained access to them at the Nottbotten museum, Skellefteå museum and Västerbotten museum.

The sequencing takes place at the SciLifeLab in Uppsala and Stockholm, and the sequence analysis is carried out in collaboration with the Swedish University of Agriculture (SLU) and the Natural Resources Institute of Finland (LUKE).

There are only a few research groups in the world that analyze ancient DNA. The methods are still under development, but the 3MC project’s research team has been advised by Portuguese researcher Catarina Ginja, who has experience analyzing ancient DNA.