An old dog and new tricks: Genetic analysis of a Tudor dog recovered from the Mary Rose wreck

Zouganelis, George D.; Ogden, Rob; Nahar, Niru; Runfola, Valeria; Bonab, Maziar; Ardalan, Arman; Radford, David; Barnett, Ross; Larson, Greger; Hildred, Alex; Jones, Mark; Scarlett, Garry

Abstract

© 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. The Tudor warship the Mary Rose sank in the Solent waters between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight on the 19th of July 1545, whilst engaging a French invasion fleet. The ship was rediscovered in 1971 and between 1979 and 1982 the entire contents of the ship were excavated resulting in the recovery of over 25,000 objects, including the skeleton of a small to medium sized dog referred to as the Mary Rose Dog (MRD). Here we report the extraction and analysis of both mitochondrial and genomic DNA from a tooth of this animal. Our results show that the MRD was a young male of a terrier type most closely related to modern Jack Russell Terriers with a light to dark brown coat colour. Interestingly, given the antiquity of the sample, the dog was heterozygotic for the SLC2A9 gene variant that leads to hyperuricosuria when found in modern homozygotic animals. These findings help shed light on a notable historical artefact from an important period in the development of modern dog breeds.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 4, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Oct 14, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Aug 13, 2019
• Journal: Forensic Science International
• Print ISSN: 0379-0738
• Electronic ISSN: 1872-6283
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 245
• Pages: 51-57
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2014.10.001
• Keywords: Ancient DNA, Mary Rose, Terrier breed, Canine, coat colour, SLC2A9
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/2043887
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379073814004071?via%3Dihub