Analysis of mitochondrial DNA indicates that domestic sheep are derived from two different ancestral maternal sources: No evidence for contributions from Urial and Argali sheep

The origin of Ovis aries, the modern domestic sheep, is still uncertain. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from European, African and Asian sheep breeds was assayed for restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) to investigate the origins and phylogenetic relationships of domestic sheep. Two major domestic sheep lineages were apparent in the branches containing mouflon and domestic sheep. Asian and European domestic sheep lineages were found to differ by 4.43%, with the mouflon sequence diverging by 4.52% from the Asian type, but just 1.36% from the European type. This suggests that some modern domestic sheep and European mouflon have a common ancestor.