The domestication route of domestic pigs in northern China was analyzed by gene sequencing

published an article in scientific reports on August 10, 2017 called Origin and dispersal of the early domestic pigs in northern China, using genetic sequencing to analyze the domestication routes of domestic pigs in northern China.
image of pigs, known as pink, mince, petite, is the result of human domestication and is far from their blue-faced ancestors. Who first domesticated the pig? How many genes do the pork on our table come from this land?
scientists generally believe that modern domestic pigs are domesticated independently in at least two places, one in Europe and the other in East Asia. China's native pigs are the direct descendants of the first generation of domesticated domestic pigs. However, the evolutionary route of piglets is far from simple, on the one hand, there is no reproductive isolation between piglets and wild boars, at any time it is possible to introduce wild boar genes interfere with the identification of scientists, on the other hand, in the past 10,000 years in East Asia, the frequent migration of humans, pigs are scattered around. All of this makes the true origin of the pig a mystery.
mitochondrial DNA can help us identify the family tree of living things. Michael Hofreiter of the University of Potsdam in Germany and Zhao Xingbo of the Agricultural University of China performed DNA tests on pigs living in northern China and found that the middle and northeast reaches of the Yellow River were most likely two independent sources of pigs from northern China.
took a large number of samples from 15 ancient pig remains in northern China, spanned 10,000 years, and sequenced mitochondrial DNA. It was found that the earliest family pigs living in the middle of the Yellow River had carried the matri lineage genes of later ancient pigs and modern Chinese pigs. Their data also support another possible origin: northeast China began using piglets in the New Stone Age, and between 8,000 and 3,500 years earlier as the origin of pigs. 3,500 years later, genetic replacement occurred in pigs in northeastern China.
results not only provide more evidence for the middle reaches of the Yellow River as the origin of independent domestic pigs, but also depict the basic outline of the early domestication of domestic pigs in northeast China. (Source: Science Network)