Biodiversity of pig breeds from China and Europe estimated from pooled DNA samples: differences in microsatellite variation between two areas of domestication

Abstract

-Microsatellite diversity in European and Chinese pigs was assessed using a pooled sampling method on 52 European and 46 Chinese pig populations. A Neighbor Joining analysis on genetic distances revealed that European breeds were grouped together and showed little evidence for geographic structure, although a southern European and English group could tentatively be assigned. Populations from international breeds formed breed specific clusters. The Chinese breeds formed a second major group, with the Sino-European synthetic Tia Meslan in-between the two large clusters. Within Chinese breeds, in contrast to the European pigs, a large degree of geographic structure was noted, in line with previous classification schemes for Chinese pigs that were based on morphology and geography. The Northern Chinese breeds were most similar to the European breeds. Although some overlap exists, Chinese breeds showed a higher average degree of heterozygosity and genetic distance compared to European ones. Between breed diversity was even more pronounced and was the highest in the Central Chinese pigs, reflecting the geographically central position in China. Comparing correlations between genetic distance and heterozygosity revealed that China and Europe represent different domestication or breed formation processes. A likely cause is a more diverse wild boar population in Asia, but various other possible contributing factors are discussed.pigs / Chinese breeds / European breeds / DNA pools / microsatellite /

Farm‐by‐farm analysis of microsatellite, mtDNA and SNP genotype data reveals inbreeding and crossbreeding as threats to the survival of a native Spanish pig breed

“…Meishan was the most divergent population, whereas Large White and Landrace were less differentiated as was previously observed (e.g., Megens et al 2008). Structure analysis showed a lower membership coefficient in the CM breed (0.85) than in Berkshire, Tamworth, Duroc and Iberian Pig breeds (>0.90), but this was mainly because of the existence of a limited number of admixed animals within the CM pigs tested.…”

STR Profiling for Discrimination between Wild and Domestic Swine Specimens and between Main Breeds of Domestic Pigs Reared in Belarus

“…However, one cannot neglect a fact that Duroc pigs originated in America unlike Landrace, Yorkshire and Belarusian local lines which were developed in Europe. Genetic distinctiveness of this breed was also observed by Megens et al, who studied microsatellite variation in 98 pig lines from Europe and China and found Duroc to be the most divergent among breeds developed in Europe or derived from European pigs [40]. Genetic proximity between Landrace and Belarusian Meat breeds, revealed in our analysis, was not surprising, taking into account Landrace ancestors of Belarusian Meat pigs [41].…”

Multi-Locus Analysis Reveals A Different Pattern of Genetic Diversity for Mitochondrial and Nuclear DNA between Wild and Domestic Pigs in East Asia

“…Inputs of genetic diversity could either originate from other centers of domestication or from wild boars. We lean toward wild boars because there is no evidence of introgression in East Asian local breeds from other centers based on the microsatellite data [16], [59].…”