Multi-omics approaches for comprehensive analysis and understanding of the immune response in the miniature pig breed

PLoS One. 2022 May 19;17(5):e0263035. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263035. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

The porcine immune system has an important role in pre-clinical studies together with understanding the biological response mechanisms before entering into clinical trials. The size distribution of the Korean minipig is an important feature that make this breed ideal for biomedical research and safe practice in post clinical studies. The extremely tiny (ET) minipig serves as an excellent model for various biomedical research studies, but the comparatively frail and vulnerable immune response to the environment over its Large (L) size minipig breed leads to additional after born care. To overcome this pitfall, comparative analysis of the genomic regions under selection in the L type breed could provide a better understanding at the molecular level and lead to the development of an enhanced variety of ET type minipig. In this study, we utilized whole genome sequencing (WGS) to identify traces of artificial selection and integrated them with transcriptome data generated from blood samples to find strongly selected and differentially expressed genes of interest. We identified a total of 35 common genes among which 7 were differentially expressed and showed selective sweep in the L type over the ET type minipig breed. The stabilization of these genes were further confirmed using nucleotide diversity analysis, and these genes could serve as potential biomarkers for the development of a better variety of ET type pig breed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Breeding*
  • Genome*
  • Genomics
  • Immunity
  • Swine / genetics
  • Swine, Miniature / genetics

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Korea Post-Genome Project (Project title: Deciphering the reference genome and the discovery of trait-associated genes in Nanchukmacdon and mini pigs). Project No. PJ013343 of the National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea. This study was supported by 2020 the RDA Fellowship Program of National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea. This funding helped in successfully performing all the sample analysis and provided financial assistance to D.A. The funding bodies played no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript”.