Assessment of minimum sample sizes required to adequately represent diversity reveals inadequacies in datasets of domestic dog mitochondrial DNA

Abstract

Background and aims: Evolutionary and forensic studies commonly choose the mitochondrial control region as the locus for which to evaluate the domestic dog. However, the number of dogs that need to be sampled in order to represent the control region variation present in the worldwide population is yet to be determined.

Materials and methods: Following the methods of Pereira et al. (2004), we have demonstrated the importance of surveying the complete control region rather than only the popular left domain. We have also evaluated sample saturation in terms of the haplotype number and the number of polymorphisms within the control region.

Results: Of the most commonly cited evolutionary research, only a single study has adequately surveyed the domestic dog population, while all forensic studies have failed to meet the minimum values.

Conclusion: We recommend that future studies consider dataset size when designing experiments and ideally sample both domains of the control region in an appropriate number of domestic dogs.

Keywords::

• Domestic dog
• mitochondrial control region
• haplotype
• polymorphism

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Benjamin Rosenthal for his helpful discussions and assistance, three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and recommendations, and Sean Webb for assistance with writing the shell script and final review of the manuscript.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.