Richard Osei-Amponsah, Benjamin M. Skinner, Dennis O. Adjei, Julien Bauer, Greger Larson, Nabeel A. Affara, Carole A. Sargent
Abstract
The Ashanti Dwarf Pig (ADP) of Ghana is an endangered pig breed with hardy and disease resistant traits. Characterisation of animal genetic resources provides relevant data for their conservation and sustainable use for food security and economic development. We investigated the origin and phylogenetic status of the local ADP of Ghana and their crosses with modern commercial breeds based on mtDNA, MC1R, Y-chromosome sequence polymorphisms, and genome-wide SNP genotyping.
The study involved 164 local pigs sampled from the three agro-ecological zones of Ghana. Analyses of the mitochondrial D-loop region and Y-chromosome sequences revealed both European and Asian genetic signatures, with differences between the geographical zones. Black coat colour is the most predominant within the breed, with black MC1R alleles of both Asian and European origin. European alleles for spotting are present at a low frequency in the sample set, and may account for the occurrence of spotted piglets in some APD litters. PCA analysis of SNP data revealed a strong location and breed effect on clustering of local Ghanaian pigs. On a global level, Ghanaian local pigs cluster closely with European pigs of commercial origin, but we identified intervals via FST analyses that may elucidate loci for ADP specific traits.
The presence of both European and Asian contributions, with differences between geographical zones probably reflects trading and colonial influences. Understanding the effects of admixture on important adaptive and economic traits of the ADP and other local breeds in Africa is critical for developing sustainable conservation programmes to prevent the decline of these genetic resources.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 10. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 20 December 2017.
All research outputs
#3,213,832
of 22,955,959 outputs
Outputs from BMC Genomics
#1,228
of 10,686 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#61,688
of 310,302 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Genomics
#40
of 213 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,955,959 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 85th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 10,686 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.7. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 310,302 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 80% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 213 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 81% of its contemporaries.
