Whole-genome sequencing of 128 camels across Asia reveals origin and migration of domestic Bactrian camels

The domestic Bactrian camels were treated as one of the principal means of locomotion between the eastern and western cultures in history. However, whether they originated from East Asia or Central Asia remains elusive. To address this question, we perform whole-genome sequencing of 128 camels across Asia. The extant wild and domestic Bactrian camels show remarkable genetic divergence, as they were split from dromedaries. The wild Bactrian camels also contribute little to the ancestry of domestic ones, although they share close habitat in East Asia. Interestingly, among the domestic Bactrian camels, those from Iran exhibit the largest genetic distance and the earliest split from all others in the phylogeny, despite evident admixture between domestic Bactrian camels and dromedaries living in Central Asia. Taken together, our study support the Central Asian origin of domestic Bactrian camels, which were then immigrated eastward to Mongolia where native wild Bactrian camels inhabit. Ming, Yuan et al. performed whole-genome sequencing on 128 wild and domesticated Bactrian camels across Asia. They show that wild and domestic Bactrian camels are genetically diverged from dromedaries, and that wild camels contributed little to domestic camel ancestry despite sharing a habitat in East Asia.