From: mdhangton@gmail.com   
      
   William Vetter wrote:   
   >   
   > We implemented the Bayesian population   
   > genetic analysis program STRUCTURE, which   
   > assesses population subdivision and characterizes   
   > genomic evidence of recent hybridization.   
   > STRUCTURE analyses of the 851 STR genotypes   
   > placed cats into discrete population clusters   
   > corresponding to European, African, and central   
   > Asian wildcats and identified a subdivision of   
   > domestic cats from different regions (Fig. 2B).   
   > Interestingly, we identified a discrete population   
   > of wild and domestic cats from the Near East   
   > (brown group in Fig. 2B) distinct from the other   
   > F. silvestris subspecies, as well as three subgroupings   
   > of domestic cats. These 15 individuals   
   > had concordant mtDNA and STR phylogenies   
   > identical to those of domestic cats and were   
   > collected in remote deserts of Israel, United Arab   
   > Emirates, Bahrain, or Saudi Arabia. These data   
   > suggest that these Near Eastern wildcats may   
   > represent the ancestral founder population of domestic   
   > cats, supporting a domestication origin in   
   > the Near East.   
      
   What I don't get about this is, if the domestic cats and the Felis   
   Sylvestris wildcats interbreed so easily, then how do they know these   
   15 wildcats they found in Mideast deserts aren't descended from one or   
   two litters of kittens from a domestic kittycat bred by Felis   
   Sylvestris Lybica?  That situation would give the wildcats domestic cat   
   mitochondrial DNA.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)