Pius Lenox, Huang Shuntao, Wanjala George, Bagi Zoltán, Kusza Szilvia
College of Animal Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
Animal Breeding and Genetics Resource Section, Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (TALIRI), Dodoma 41207, Tanzania.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Aug 19;14(16):2407. doi: 10.3390/ani14162407.
Africa is home to a wide diversity of locally adapted pig breeds whose genetic architecture offers important insights into livestock adaptation to climate change. However, the majority of these inherent traits have not been fully highlighted. This review presents an overview of the current state of African pig genetic resources, providing highlights on their population and production statistics, production system, population diversity indices, and genomic evidence underlying their evolutionary potential. The study results reveal an incomplete characterization of local pig genotypes across the continent. The characterized population, however, demonstrates moderate to high levels of genetic diversity, enough to support breeding and conservation programs. Owing to low genetic differentiation and limited evidence of distinct population structures, it appears that most local pig populations are strains within larger breeds. Genomic evidence has shown a higher number of selection signatures associated with various economically important traits, thus making them potential candidates for climate change adaptation. The reportedly early evidence of hybridization with wild suid groups further suggests untapped insights into disease resistance and resilience traits that need to be illuminated using higher-density markers. Nevertheless, gene introgression from commercial breeds is prevalent across Africa; thus, efforts to realize and utilize these traits must increase before they are permanently depleted.
非洲拥有多种适应当地环境的猪品种，其遗传结构为了解家畜对气候变化的适应性提供了重要见解。然而，这些固有特性中的大多数尚未得到充分凸显。本综述概述了非洲猪遗传资源的现状，重点介绍了其种群和生产统计数据、生产系统、种群多样性指数以及其进化潜力背后的基因组证据。研究结果表明，整个非洲大陆的本地猪基因型特征尚不完整。然而，已表征的种群显示出中等至高程度的遗传多样性，足以支持育种和保护计划。由于遗传分化程度低且缺乏明显种群结构的证据，大多数本地猪种群似乎是较大品种中的品系。基因组证据表明，与各种经济上重要的性状相关的选择信号数量较多，因此使其成为适应气候变化的潜在候选品种。据报道，与野生猪科群体杂交的早期证据进一步表明，对于抗病性和恢复力性状仍有未开发的见解，需要使用更高密度的标记来阐明。然而，商业品种的基因渗入在非洲各地普遍存在；因此，在这些特性永久耗尽之前，必须加大力度来认识和利用它们。
