人和猪在很多方面都有共同点
来自英国爱丁堡大学罗斯林研究所的研究人员日前完成了猪的基因组测序，他们发现猪和人竟然共有112个相同的基因突变。
报道称，这些基因突变与帕金森综合症、老年痴呆症等疾病有关，这一研究成果若用于医学研究，很可能能帮助治疗上述疾病。
在研究人员对猪的基因进行分析后发现，猪对环境的适应能力很强，很容易被食物所诱惑也很容易驯化，猪和野猪在很多方面都与人存在共同点。
研究人员马丁·格罗恩称：“通过对猪的基因进行研究，可以帮助我们了解并治疗人类由基因突变引发的疾病，这些疾病包括肥胖、糖尿病、阅读障碍、帕金森综合症和老年痴呆。”
Analyses of pig genomes provide insight into porcine demography and evolution
Martien A. M. Groenen, Alan L. Archibald, Hirohide Uenishi, Christopher K. Tuggle, Yasuhiro Takeuchi, Max F. Rothschild, Claire Rogel-Gaillard, Chankyu Park, Denis Milan, Hendrik-Jan Megens, Shengting Li, Denis M. Larkin, Heebal Kim, Laurent A. F. Frantz, Mario Caccamo, Hyeonju Ahn, Bronwen L. Aken, Anna Anselmo, Christian Anthon, Loretta Auvil, Bouabid Badaoui, Craig W. Beattie, Christian Bendixen, Daniel Berman, Frank Blecha
For 10,000 years pigs and humans have shared a close and complex relationship. From domestication to modern breeding practices, humans have shaped the genomes of domestic pigs. Here we present the assembly and analysis of the genome sequence of a female domestic Duroc pig (Sus scrofa) and a comparison with the genomes of wild and domestic pigs from Europe and Asia. Wild pigs emerged in South East Asia and subsequently spread across Eurasia. Our results reveal a deep phylogenetic split between European and Asian wild boars ~1 million years ago, and a selective sweep analysis indicates selection on genes involved in RNA processing and regulation. Genes associated with immune response and olfaction exhibit fast evolution. Pigs have the largest repertoire of functional olfactory receptor genes, reflecting the importance of smell in this scavenging animal. The pig genome sequence provides an important resource for further improvements of this important livestock species, and our identification of many putative disease-causing variants extends the potential of the pig as a biomedical model.
文献链接：Analyses of pig genomes provide insight into porcine demography and evolution
