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A special issue of Genes (ISSN 2073-4425). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Genetics and Genomics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2023) | Viewed by 17764

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Ruihua Huang

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Guest Editor

Key Laboratory in Nanjing of Evaluation and Utilization of Livestock and Poultry Resources (Pig) of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Swine Science, College of Animal Science & Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Interests: healthy pig production; pig genetic resource exploration and innovative utilization
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Pinghua Li

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Guest Editor

Institute of Swine Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
Interests: pig molecular genetics and breeding; healthy pig production

Dr. Liming Hou

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Guest Editor

Institute of Swine Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
Interests: pig molecular genetics and breeding; healthy pig production

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Animal husbandry is an important part of agriculture, and the pig industry is a huge industry. Pork is an essential source of animal protein foods, and it accounts for about 40% of all consumed red meat in the world. Over the past 50 years, researchers have identified numerous quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and DNA variations associated with pigs’ various traits, but few major genes and causative mutations have been discovered. With the development of DNA sequencing technologies and genomics, geneticists have implemented the genome single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) chip and high-depth and throughput genome resequencing coupled with genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for pigs’ genetic analysis. Using these methods, researchers have identified or reconfirmed several candidate genes and molecular markers associated with pig traits. These studies have expedited the progress to identify causative mutations and to reveal the potential genetic basis for the formation and evolution of pigs’ various traits. A growing interest in the molecular regulatory mechanism of functional candidate genes and causative mutations has emerged. Moreover, swine breeding methods have been improved from phenotypic evaluation to more advanced methods such as marker-assisted selection (MAS) or genomic selection (GS), which improves the speed of genetic improvement for pigs’ important economic traits, such as growth, reproduction and feed efficiency, etc. New biotechnologies, especially CRISPR-based gene-editing technologies, have been widely used for the generation of genetically modified pigs with better performance, such as disease resistance and double muscle rump pigs.

This Special Issue will focus on recent research advances in pig molecular genetics and breeding. Research articles related to molecular genetic basis analysis for pigs’ important economic traits (including, but not limited to, growth, reproduction, meat quality, stress resistance and disease resistance, etc.), the molecular regulatory mechanism regarding functional candidate genes or causative mutations, and the application of new breeding technologies in pigs are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Ruihua Huang
Dr. Pinghua Li
Dr. Liming Hou
Guest Editors

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Keywords

pig
economic trait
molecular genetics
molecular marker
molecular regulation mechanism
breeding
genome selection
gene editing

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Published Papers (8 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 6830 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Identification of Selection Signatures and Loci Associated with Important Economic Traits in Yunan Black and Huainan Pigs

by Yachun Han, Tao Tan, Zixin Li, Zheng Ma, Ganqiu Lan, Jing Liang, Kui Li and Lijing Bai

Genes 2023, 14(3), 655; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14030655 - 5 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2017

Abstract

Henan Province is located in central China and rich in domestic pig populations; Huainan (HN) pigs are one of three Henan indigenous breeds with great performance, including early maturation, strong disease resistance and high meat quality. Yunan (YN) black pigs are a typical, newly cultivated breed, synthesized between HN pigs and American Duroc, and are subjected to selection for important traits, such as fast growth and excellent meat quality. However, the genomic differences, selection signatures and loci associated with important economic traits in YN black pigs and HN pigs are still not well understood. In this study, based on high-density SNP chip analysis of 159 samples covering commercial DLY (Duroc × Landrace × Large White) pigs, HN pigs and YN black pigs, we performed a comprehensive analysis of phylogenetic relationships and genetic diversity among the three breeds. Furthermore, we used composite likelihood ratio tests (CLR) and F-statistics (Fst) to identify specific signatures of selection associated with important economic traits and potential candidate genes. We found 147 selected regions (top 1%) harboring 90 genes based on genetic differentiation (Fst) in the YN-DLY group. In the HN-DLY group, 169 selected regions harbored 58 genes. In the YN-HN group, 179 selected regions harbored 77 genes. In addition, the QTLs database with the most overlapping regions was associated with triglyceride level, number of mummified pigs, hemoglobin and loin muscle depth for YN black pigs, litter size and intramuscular fat content for HN pigs, and humerus length, linolenic acid content and feed conversion ratio mainly in DLY pigs. Of note, overlapping 14 tissue-specific promoters’ annotation with the top Fst 1% selective regions systematically demonstrated the muscle-specific and hypothalamus-specific regulatory elements in YN black pigs. Taken together, these results contribute to an accurate knowledge of crossbreeding, thus benefitting the evaluation of production performance and improving the genome-assisted breeding of other important indigenous pig in the future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Pig Molecular Genetics and Breeding)

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12 pages, 2359 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Genome-Wide Detection and Analysis of Copy Number Variation in Anhui Indigenous and Western Commercial Pig Breeds Using Porcine 80K SNP BeadChip

by Chengliang Xu, Wei Zhang, Yao Jiang, Mei Zhou, Linqing Liu, Shiguang Su, Xueting Li and Chonglong Wang

Genes 2023, 14(3), 654; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14030654 - 5 Mar 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1999

Abstract

Copy number variation (CNV) is an important class of genetic variations widely associated with the porcine genome, but little is known about the characteristics of CNVs in foreign and indigenous pig breeds. We performed a genome-wide comparison of CNVs between Anhui indigenous pig (AHIP) and Western commercial pig (WECP) breeds based on data from the Porcine 80K SNP BeadChip. After analysis using the PennCNV software, we detected 3863 and 7546 CNVs in the AHIP and WECP populations, respectively. We obtained 225 (loss: 178, gain: 47) and 379 (loss: 293, gain: 86) copy number variation regions (CNVRs) randomly distributed across the autosomes of the AHIP and WECP populations, accounting for 10.90% and 22.57% of the porcine autosomal genome, respectively. Functional enrichment analysis of genes in the CNVRs identified genes related to immunity (FOXJ1, FOXK2, MBL2, TNFRSF4, SIRT1, NCF1) and meat quality (DGAT1, NT5E) in the WECP population; these genes were a loss event in the WECP population. This study provides important information on CNV differences between foreign and indigenous pig breeds, making it possible to provide a reference for future improvement of these breeds and their production performance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Pig Molecular Genetics and Breeding)

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14 pages, 3343 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Copy Number Variation Analysis Revealed the Evolutionary Difference between Chinese Indigenous Pigs and Asian Wild Boars

by Shuhao Fan, Chengcheng Kong, Yige Chen, Xianrui Zheng, Ren Zhou, Xiaodong Zhang, Xudong Wu, Wei Zhang, Yueyun Ding and Zongjun Yin

Genes 2023, 14(2), 472; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14020472 - 12 Feb 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1872

Abstract

Copy number variation (CNV) has been widely used to study the evolution of different species. We first discovered different CNVs in 24 Anqingliubai pigs and 6 Asian wild boars using next-generation sequencing at the whole-genome level with 10× depth to understand the relationship between genetic evolution and production traits in wild boars and domestic pigs. A total of 97,489 CNVs were identified and divided into 10,429 copy number variation regions (CNVRs), occupying 32.06% of the porcine genome. Chromosome 1 had the most CNVRs, and chromosome 18 had the least. Ninety-six CNVRs were selected using VST 1% based on the signatures of all CNVRs, and sixty-five genes were identified in the selected regions. These genes were strongly correlated with traits distinguishing groups by enrichment in Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways, such as growth (CD36), reproduction (CIT, RLN), detoxification (CYP3A29), and fatty acid metabolism (ELOVL6). The QTL overlapping regions were associated with meat traits, growth, and immunity, which was consistent with CNV analysis. Our findings increase the understanding of evolved genome structural variations between wild boars and domestic pigs, and provide new molecular biomarkers to guide breeding and the efficient use of available genetic resources. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Pig Molecular Genetics and Breeding)

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13 pages, 3113 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Comparative Proteomic Analysis of Glycolytic and Oxidative Muscle in Pigs

by Xiaofan Tan, Yu He, Yuqiao He, Zhiwei Yan, Jing Chen, Ruixue Zhao, Xin Sui, Lei Zhang, Xuehai Du, David M. Irwin, Shuyi Zhang and Bojiang Li

Genes 2023, 14(2), 361; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes14020361 - 30 Jan 2023

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1957

Abstract

The quality of meat is highly correlated with muscle fiber type. However, the mechanisms via which proteins regulate muscle fiber types in pigs are not entirely understood. In the current study, we have performed proteomic profiling of fast/glycolytic biceps femoris (BF) and slow/oxidative soleus (SOL) muscles and identified several candidate differential proteins among these. We performed proteomic analyses based on tandem mass tags (TMTs) and identified a total of 26,228 peptides corresponding to 2667 proteins among the BF and SOL muscle samples. Among these, we found 204 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) between BF and SOL muscle, with 56 up-regulated and 148 down-regulated DEPs in SOL muscle samples. KEGG and GO enrichment analyses of the DEPs revealed that the DEPs are involved in some GO terms (e.g., actin cytoskeleton, myosin complex, and cytoskeletal parts) and signaling pathways (PI3K-Akt and NF-kappa B signaling pathways) that influence muscle fiber type. A regulatory network of protein–protein interaction (PPI) between these DEPs that regulates muscle fiber types was constructed, which demonstrates how three down-regulated DEPs, including PFKM, GAPDH, and PKM, interact with other proteins to potentially control the glycolytic process. This study offers a new understanding of the molecular mechanisms in glycolytic and oxidative muscles as well as a novel approach for enhancing meat quality by transforming the type of muscle fibers in pigs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Pig Molecular Genetics and Breeding)

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17 pages, 3207 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Genomic Signatures Reveal Breeding Effects of Lulai Pigs

by Rui Cao, Jian Feng, Yuejin Xu, Yifei Fang, Wei Zhao, Zhenyang Zhang, Zhe Zhang, Meng Li, Qishan Wang and Yuchun Pan

Genes 2022, 13(11), 1969; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13111969 - 28 Oct 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1917

Abstract

In Chinese pig populations in which crossbreeding is used, these animals show a level of weakness compared with their original purebred ancestors. For instance, in the Lulai pig, a newly developed Chinese breed that is raised on the basis of the Laiwu pig (a Chinese indigenous breed with exceptionally high intramuscular fat content) and the Yorkshire pig using a method of systematic crossbreeding, both their market acceptance and performance are inferior. To reveal the practical role of these admixed breeds and traditional systematic crossbreeding methods at the genomic level, we explored population structure, genetic signatures, and introgression. We conducted this study based on the SNP chip data of 381 Lulai pigs, 182 Laiwu pigs, and 127 Yorkshires, which showed deficient genome coverage during our study. Therefore, we further selected the Genotyping by Genome Reducing and Sequencing (GGRS) method, which has a high density and suitable genome coverage as a supplement. We applied the GGRS data of 38 Lulai pigs, 75 Laiwu pigs, and 75 Yorkshires. In terms of the SNP chip data, by F_st analysis, we detected 782 significantly different genes between Lulai pigs and Yorkshires, including 3 major genes associated with growth (LEPR) and meat quality (SCD and TBC1D1), and we detected 426 significantly different genes between Lulai pigs and Laiwu pigs. With rIBD, we detected 12 genomic regions that included 182 genes that Yorkshires introgressed to Lulai pigs, and we detected 27 genomic regions that included 229 genes with a major gene (SCD) that Laiwu pigs introgressed to Lulai pigs. Regarding the GGRS data, we detected 601 significantly different genes between Lulai pigs and Yorkshires by F_st analysis, including 3 major genes associated with growth and fat deposits (IGF2 and FTO) and with hair color (KIT), and we detected 634 significantly different genes between Lulai pigs and Laiwu pigs, including 3 major genes related to their body composition (MYPN), hair color (KIT), and ear size (PPARD). By rIBD, we detected 94 deep sections that included 363 genes that Yorkshires introgressed to Lulai pigs, and we detected 149 deep sections that included 727 genes with a major gene (ESR1) that Laiwu pigs introgressed to Lulai pigs. Altogether, this study provides both insight into the molecular background of synthesized breeds of Lulai pigs and a reference for the evaluation of systematic crossbreeding in China. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Pig Molecular Genetics and Breeding)

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11 pages, 669 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Genetic Associations of Novel Behaviour Traits Derived from Social Network Analysis with Growth, Feed Efficiency, and Carcass Characteristics in Pigs

by Saif Agha, Simon P. Turner, Craig R. G. Lewis, Suzanne Desire, Rainer Roehe and Andrea Doeschl-Wilson

Genes 2022, 13(9), 1616; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13091616 - 8 Sep 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1748

Abstract

Reducing harmful aggressive behaviour remains a major challenge in pig production. Social network analysis (SNA) showed the potential in providing novel behavioural traits that describe the direct and indirect role of individual pigs in pen-level aggression. Our objectives were to (1) estimate the genetic parameters of these SNA traits, and (2) quantify the genetic associations between the SNA traits and commonly used performance measures: growth, feed intake, feed efficiency, and carcass traits. The animals were video recorded for 24 h post-mixing. The observed fighting behaviour of each animal was used as input for the SNA. A Bayesian approach was performed to estimate the genetic parameters of SNA traits and their association with the performance traits. The heritability estimates for all SNA traits ranged from 0.01 to 0.35. The genetic correlations between SNA and performance traits were non-significant, except for weighted degree with hot carcass weight, and for both betweenness and closeness centrality with test daily gain, final body weight, and hot carcass weight. Our results suggest that SNA traits are amenable for selective breeding. Integrating these traits with other behaviour and performance traits may potentially help in building up future strategies for simultaneously improving welfare and performance in commercial pig farms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Pig Molecular Genetics and Breeding)

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11 pages, 978 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimation of Complex-Trait Prediction Accuracy from the Different Holo-Omics Interaction Models

by Qamar Raza Qadri, Qingbo Zhao, Xueshuang Lai, Zhenyang Zhang, Wei Zhao, Yuchun Pan and Qishan Wang

Genes 2022, 13(9), 1580; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13091580 - 2 Sep 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1983

Abstract

Statistical models play a significant role in designing competent breeding programs related to complex traits. Recently; the holo-omics framework has been productively utilized in trait prediction; but it contains many complexities. Therefore; it is desirable to establish prediction accuracy while combining the host’s genome and microbiome data. Several methods can be used to combine the two data in the model and study their effectiveness by estimating the prediction accuracy. We validate our holo-omics interaction models with analysis from two publicly available datasets and compare them with genomic and microbiome prediction models. We illustrate that the holo-omics interactive models achieved the highest prediction accuracy in ten out of eleven traits. In particular; the holo-omics interaction matrix estimated using the Hadamard product displayed the highest accuracy in nine out of eleven traits, with the direct holo-omics model and microbiome model showing the highest prediction accuracy in the remaining two traits. We conclude that comparing prediction accuracy in different traits using real data showed important intuitions into the holo-omics architecture of complex traits. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Pig Molecular Genetics and Breeding)

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11 pages, 1425 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Genome-Wide Association Study Identified a Quantitative Trait Locus and Two Candidate Genes on Sus scrofa Chromosome 2 Affecting Vulvar Traits of Suhuai Pigs

by Yanzhen Yin, Liming Hou, Chenxi Liu, Kaijun Li, Hao Guo, Peipei Niu, Qiang Li, Ruihua Huang and Pinghua Li

Genes 2022, 13(8), 1294; https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13081294 - 22 Jul 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2035

Abstract

Vulvar size and angle are meaningful traits in pig production. Sows with abnormal vulva generally show reproductive disorders. In order to excavate candidate loci and genes associated with pig’s vulvar traits, 270 Suhuai pigs with vulvar phenotype were genotyped by a porcine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) Chip. Then, Chip data were imputed using resequenced data of 30 Suhuai pigs as a reference panel. Next, we estimated the heritability and performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for vulvar traits. The heritabilities for the traits vulvar length (VL), vulvar width (VW) and vulvar angle (VA) in this pig population were 0.23, 0.32 and 0.22, respectively. GWAS based on Chip data identified nine significant SNPs on the Sus scrofa chromosomes (SSC) 2, 7, 9 and 13 for VL or VW. GWAS based on imputed data identified 11 new quantitative trait loci (QTL) on SSC1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 16 and 17 for VL or VW. The most significant QTL for VL on SSC2 were refined to a 3.48–3.97 Mb region using linkage disequilibrium and linkage analysis (LDLA). In this refined region, FGF19 and CCND1, involved in the development of the reproductive tract, cell growth and vulvar cancer, could be new candidate genes affecting VL. Our results provided potential genetic markers for the breeding of vulvar traits in pigs and deepened the understanding of the genetic mechanism of vulvar traits. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Pig Molecular Genetics and Breeding)

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