Otago DNA research links kuri to Indonesia

University of Otago PhD student Karen Greig and an extinct kuri, a Polynesian dog, at the Otago...
University of Otago PhD student Karen Greig and an extinct kuri, a Polynesian dog, at the Otago Museum. PHOTO: LINDA ROBERTSON
Powerful new genetic analysis by University of Otago scientists of New Zealand's first dog, the extinct kuri, has revealed tantalising ancient links with Indonesia.

Otago University PhD student Karen Greig has been unravelling the genetic heritage of the kuri using DNA analysis.

Ms Greig said ancient dogs and people may have begun moving out of some places in island Southeast Asia, which includes Indonesia and the Philippines, 3000 to 4000 years ago.

Kuri were smallish dogs and reached New Zealand from East Polynesia in colonising canoes in the early 14th century.

The researchers also discovered that kuri found at the Wairau Bar, in Marlborough, were genetically most similar to modern dogs from Indonesia.

The DNA samples were extracted from teeth excavated from an oven feature at the Wairau site.

This oven was used sometime between the early 1320s and 1350 AD.

''It's really cutting-edge research in terms of ancient DNA,'' Ms Greig said yesterday.

''It's really exciting to be able to do that at Otago.''

The findings have just been published in the international journal Plos One and are part of Ms Greig's PhD research into dog/human relationships in the ancient Pacific.

This work is being supervised by Prof Lisa Matisoo-Smith and Prof Richard Walter.

Kuri were the only domesticated animal to be successfully introduced by the Polynesian settlers but died out as a distinct breed after interbreeding with European dogs.

Prof Matisoo-Smith said that although there was a link with modern dogs in Indonesia, there was nothing to suggest this place was a sole point of origin, and further research was likely to show ancient links with other parts of island Southeast Asia.

One of the most ''exciting results'' was the discovery that by using these latest technologies Ms Greig could sequence the entire mitochondrial genome, and not just a small portion, as with previous ancient DNA studies of Pacific dogs.

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