Genetic Relationships Among Sus scrofa in East and South-East Asia

Previous studies on Mitochondrial DNA haplotype consistently suggested the border region between the northwestern mountainous area of Vietnam and China was considered to be one of the major sites of pig domestication, and many major Asian breeds have appeared from the Taihu-lake (Meishan, and Jinhua) to the north Vietnam (Moung Cai). A wide variety of morphological appearances (body size, ear form and coat color) between breeds suggested that high degree of genetic diversity was retained in those pigs. In this study, we aimed to investigate the genetic relationships among Sus scrofa in East and South Asia (domestic pigs in Vietnam (15 breeds), China breeds (Meishan and Jinhua) that have been raised in Japan, and Japan (Agu)) and wild boars (main land and Okinawa in Japan, Sumatera and Java islands in Indonesia and Vietnam) and Landrace as an out-group using SNP genotyping data. Principal components analysis using EigenStrat showed that the Agu breed was highly divergent from the other breeds and the wild boars, suggesting that historical process through breed establishment of Agu is different from those for other Asian pigs. The results from ADMIXTURE program elucidated that the native breeds of Vietnam consisted of mainly two different ancestor populations, and some Vietnamese native breeds fed near City areas (Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh) have already crossed with some Western breeds. Our results indicate that the Sus Scrofa in East and South-East Asia were genetically divergent each other, but some breeds were found to be admixed with some European breeds.