Diversity of northern thai native pigs determined by microsatellite analysis

Abstract

© 2020 by Maejo University, San Sai, Chiang Mai, 50290 Thailand. Thai native pigs are traditional local breeds in rural areas and highland areas of Thailand. They are better adapted to the climate and part of the cultural heritage of communities in these areas. However, they are at risk of loss of genetic diversity because of modern agriculture and globalisation. We evaluated genetic diversity within and between five native pig populations from four river basins (n = 49) based on 10 microsatellite markers including eight markers from the FAO/ISAG panel. All microsatellites exhibited high degrees of polymorphism and allelic diversity. The mean polymorphism information content and observed and expected heterozygosity values were 0.725, 0.624, and 0.759 respectively. Thai native pigs in Mae Hong Son province exhibited high diversity and phenotype variation. Based on Nei’s genetic distances, the five populations were classified into two main groups, in which native pig population from Pang Dang Nai, Chiang Mai was separated from the other four populations. We further evaluated 15 microsatellites for detailed diversity and clustering analyses of individuals with different phenotypes from Mae Hong Son (n = 17) and Nan (n = 5). The unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean dendrogram indicated three major clusters, in which pigs with the same coat colour pattern were grouped together. However, some complex phenotypes could not be resolved by this set of markers alone. These results improve our understanding of current phenotypic and genetic diversity in native pigs in northern Thailand.