Worldwide Phylogeography of Wild Boar Reveals Multiple Centers of Pig Domestication

Abstract

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from 686 wild and domestic pig specimens place the origin of wild boar in island Southeast Asia (ISEA), where they dispersed across Eurasia. Previous morphological and genetic evidence suggested pig domestication took place in a limited number of locations (principally the Near East and Far East). In contrast, new genetic data reveal multiple centers of domestication across Eurasia and that European, rather than Near Eastern, wild boar are the principal source of modern European domestic pigs.

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

“…The positioning of the Italian blacks with Iberian breeds that appear to have very little Chinese influences [7,11], adds support to a shared southern European origin. A recent hypothesis by Larson et al [25] suggests an independent area of domestication on the Italian peninsula opposed to the rest of Europe. Our data does not support this hypothesis.…”

“…The D c and D r measures, however, are not designed to allow mutation. D r appears to be a good measure for very closely related breeds [27], but may be less appropriate for the current study since the Chinese and European breeds are believed to derive from independent domestication events of wild boar populations [15,25]. Effectively, breeds from these two regions show a separation in time larger than their domestication histories, as illustrated by the mitochondrial phylogeography [25].…”

“…Domestication of the pig occurred independently on several occasions [15,25], and some gene flow with the wild boar may have remained until pigs were kept in sties [48]. Historically, there are two major areas of pig breeding, Europe and China, and each seems to represent an independent domestication event.…”

Artificial selection of the melanocortin receptor 1 gene in Chinese domestic pigs during domestication

“…A larger population genetic data set is still to be developed to detect the effects of demographic events during pig domestication, because domestication bottlenecks can lead to patterns similar to those of selective sweep. On the other hand, it is widely known that pig domestication occurred independently in Europe and China (Giuffra et al, 2000;Larson et al, 2005). The large dN/dS ratio (23.5) between European and Chinese domestic pigs could be due to selection operating on European domestic pigs, in which a total of six non-synonymous sites were found, twice that of Chinese domestic pigs.…”

Campgrounds Suitability Evaluation Using GIS-based Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis: A Case Study of Kuerdening, China

“…Areas with a high likelihood of geological disaster and forest fire were assigned lower scores and considered to be less suitable for campgrounds, and the scores were assigned along nature breaks. Wild boars are the main threat animals in the study area [40], they habitat the forest during the day and roam the edges of the forests, therefore a polycyclic buffer analysis was used to assign higher scores in areas further from forest areas. The assignment scores for each criterion are shown in Table 3.…”