我校家猪基因组学研究成果被《自然-遗传》作为国际农业动物遗传学领域近10年来首篇“亮点成果”加以介绍

1月30日，《自然-遗传》杂志在其“博客评论”（A blog from Nature Genetics）网站，对我校发表的家猪基因组学研究论文《全基因组重测序揭示猪环境适应性的分子机理及可能的属间杂交现象》（Adaptation and possible ancient interspecies introgression in pigs identified by whole-genome sequencing）作为“亮点成果”（Highlight）进行了专题介绍。题为“On the history of pigs”的文章阐述了该论文的研究背景、主要发现和科学意义，着重介绍了X染色体古老属间杂交导致环境适应性的重要发现。评论认为，由我校黄路生院士和任军教授领导的课题组完成的这项成果从基因组学水平揭示了自然选择对农业动物品种特性形成的影响效应，丰富了人们对家猪及农业动物适应性进化的认识。1月26日该成果以全文（Article）形式在线发表于《自然-遗传》。据悉，《自然-遗传》每年对全球遗传学及相关学科在其刊物发表的160多项成果中选择10余项作为研究亮点进行专题介绍；这是近10年来《自然-遗传》首次在其博客评论网站对国际上农业动物遗传学的研究成果作为其“亮点成果”（Highlight）进行的专题介绍。(宣传部)

原文

On the history of pigs

Posted by  Brooke LaFlamme Categories:  Evolution ,  Genomics

Understanding the genomic changes that occurred during the domestication of animals and plants by humans is important on many levels. Such insights can provide information about human history and our interactions with other species, as is the case with genetic studies of  dog  and  cat  domestication. These studies can also help us to improve crop plants ( such as tomato ) and livestock ( such as cattle ) for human consumption or other use. Finally, genetic studies on domestication can help to identify disease-causing mutations that have been selected for as a by product of selection for beneficial traits (for example,   in cats   and  dogs ).

Though humans have a huge influence on important traits in domesticated species, those species are still responding to natural selection during the domestication process, which in turn may affect traits important for agricultural purposes. Identifying genomic regions influenced by positive natural selection  in domesticated animals can lead to important insights into the biology of specific breeds.

In this respect, the pig is an excellent model to study. Humans domesticated pigs approximately 10,000 years ago in the Near East and China, but a relatively open method of keeping pigs allowed for continued interbreeding with wild boars for some time. In a  study published this week in  Nature Genetics ,  Lusheng Huang, Jun Ren and colleagues from Jiangxi Agricultural University  sequenced the genomes of 69 diverse domestic and wild pigs in China to better understand their evolutionary history.

The study included pigs from 11 diverse breeds (and 3 populations of wild boar) within China in order to compare the adaptations in breeds from cold vs. hot areas. They identified over 700 genomic regions that showed evidence of selective sweeps. Many of the genes in these regions were involved in processes important for regulation of temperature during cold or heat stress, such as hair development, energy metabolism and blood circulation.

However, one of the most striking results was the identification of a large (~14Mb) sweep region on the X-chromosome. More than 94% of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the 69 pig sample that had extreme allele frequency differences between North and South populations were located within the X-linked sweep region. All Northern Chinese samples showed a strong signature of selection in this region. Upon further analysis, the authors were able to determine that the most likely scenario, given their data, was that this region was introgressed from a now-extinct species of  Sus.  This region of the X-chromosome undergoes very little recombination. This fact, combined with the strong signal of positive selection in the region, meant the introgressed sequence remained mostly preserved for more than 8 million years.

全文链接：http://blogs.nature.com/freeassociation/