The pig and its cousin the wild boar have much in common with humans. They are world travelers. They're adaptable, invasive and often damage their own habitat.They are easy to seduce (with food) and susceptible to domestication, but they easily revert to a feral lifestyle.
A new genomic analysis reveals some new, unexpected and potentially beneficial similarities between pigs and humans, along with a few distinct differences. The International Swine Genome Sequencing Consortium – led by researchers at the University of Illinois, Wageningen University and the University of Edinburgh – conducted the analysis. A report of the study appears in the journal Nature.
The researchers compared the genome of a common farm pig, Sus scrofa domesticus, with those of 10 wild boars – all from different parts of Europe and Asia. They also compared the pig genome with the human, mouse, dog, horse and cow genomes. The team discovered new details of Sus scrofa evolution after the ancestors of the domestic pig, which most resembled today's wild boars, first emerged in Southeast Asia and gradually migrated across Eurasia.
Comparisons of Asian and European wild boars revealed significant genetic differences, the result of their separating from one another roughly 1 million years ago, said University of Illinois researcher Lawrence Schook, a principal investigator on the study.
Some gene families are undergoing relatively fast evolution in the domestic pig, with immune genes and olfactory genes quickly expanding. The pig has more unique olfactory genes than humans, mice or dogs, the researchers report. And while pigs can smell a world of things many animals can't, their sense of taste is somewhat impaired.
The new analysis also supports the use of the pig in studies of human diseases. “In total, we found 112 positions where the porcine protein has the same amino acid that is implicated in a disease in humans,” the researchers wrote. Some of the protein aberrations pigs share with humans are associated with obesity, diabetes, dyslexia, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer's disease, they reported.
The researchers compared the genome of a common farm pig, Sus scrofa domesticus, with those of 10 wild boars – all from different parts of Europe and Asia. They also compared the pig genome with the human, mouse, dog, horse and cow genomes. The team discovered new details of Sus scrofa evolution after the ancestors of the domestic pig, which most resembled today's wild boars, first emerged in Southeast Asia and gradually migrated across Eurasia.
Comparisons of Asian and European wild boars revealed significant genetic differences, the result of their separating from one another roughly 1 million years ago, said University of Illinois researcher Lawrence Schook, a principal investigator on the study.
Some gene families are undergoing relatively fast evolution in the domestic pig, with immune genes and olfactory genes quickly expanding. The pig has more unique olfactory genes than humans, mice or dogs, the researchers report. And while pigs can smell a world of things many animals can't, their sense of taste is somewhat impaired.
The new analysis also supports the use of the pig in studies of human diseases. “In total, we found 112 positions where the porcine protein has the same amino acid that is implicated in a disease in humans,” the researchers wrote. Some of the protein aberrations pigs share with humans are associated with obesity, diabetes, dyslexia, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer's disease, they reported.
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