Key Laboratory of Animal Cellular and Genetics Engineering of Heilongjiang Province, College of Life Science, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China.
Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Biotherapy, School of Life Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Feb 15;24(4):3947. doi: 10.3390/ijms24043947.
Body size is an important biological phenotypic trait that has attracted substantial attention. Small domestic pigs can serve as excellent animal models for biomedicine and also help meet sacrificial culture needs in human societies. Although the mechanisms underlying vertebral development regulating body size variation in domestic pigs during the embryonic period have been well described, few studies have examined the genetic basis of body size variation in post embryonic developmental stages. In this study, seven candidate genes-, , , , , and -significantly associated with body size were identified in Min pigs, on the basis of weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), and most of their functions were found to be associated with lipid deposition. Six candidate genes except for were found to have been subjected to purifying selection. had the lowest ω value (0.139) and showed heterogeneous selective pressure among domestic pig lineages with different body sizes ( < 0.05). These results suggested that is an important genetic factor regulating lipid deposition and consequently affecting body size variation in pigs. The culture of whole pig sacrifice in Manchu during the Qing Dynasty in China might have contributed to the strong artificial domestication and selection of Hebao pigs.
体尺是一个重要的生物学表型特征，引起了广泛关注。小型家猪可以作为生物医学的优秀动物模型，也有助于满足人类社会的祭祀文化需求。尽管在胚胎期调节家猪体尺变化的脊椎发育机制已被很好地描述，但很少有研究探讨胚胎后发育阶段体尺变化的遗传基础。本研究通过加权基因共表达网络分析（WGCNA），在民猪中鉴定出与体尺显著相关的 7 个候选基因——、、、、、和 ，它们的大多数功能与脂肪沉积有关。除 外的 6 个候选基因都受到了净化选择。 具有最低的 ω 值（0.139），在不同体尺的家猪谱系中表现出异质的选择压力（ < 0.05）。这些结果表明 是一个重要的遗传因素，调节脂肪沉积，进而影响猪的体尺变化。中国清朝时期满族的全猪祭祀文化可能促进了荷包猪的强烈人工驯化和选择。
