Evaluation of the Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Four Native Pig Populations in Gansu Province

Abstract

Indigenous pig populations, including Bamei pigs (BM), Hezuo pigs (HZ), Huixian Qingni Black pigs (HX), and Minxian Black pigs (MX) in Gansu Province, live in a particular climate and a relatively closed geographical environment. These local pig breeds are characterized by excellent characteristics (e.g., cold tolerance, robust disease resistance, and superior meat quality). In the past few years, pig populations in Gansu Province have decreased significantly because of their poor lean meat percentage, high fat content, and slow growth rate. Maintaining the diversity of these four breeds can act as a source of new alleles to be incorporated into commercial breeds which are more susceptible to disease and less adaptable to changing conditions because of inbreeding. Genomic data analysis is adequate for determining the genetic diversity and livestock breeding population structure, even in local pig populations. However, the genetic diversity and population structure of the four native pig populations in Gansu Province are still unknown. Thus, we used “Zhongxin-I” porcine chip for the SNP detection of 102 individuals living on four pig conservation farms. A total of 57,466 SNPs were identified among the four pig breeds. The linkage disequilibrium (LD) plot showed that MX had the highest level of LD, followed by BM, HZ, and HX. The observed heterozygosity (Ho) in all four populations was higher than the expected heterozygosity (He). A principal component analysis (PCA) demonstrated that the four local pig populations were isolated. The identity displayed by the state matrix and G matrix heat map results indicated that small numbers of individuals among the four pig breeds had a high genetic distance and weak genetic relationships. The results of the population genetic structure of BM, HZ, HX, and MX pigs showed a slight genetic diversity loss. Our findings enabled us to better understand the genome characteristics of these four indigenous pig populations, which will provide novel insights for the future germplasm conservation and utilization of these indigenous pig populations.