ABSTRACT
The aim of this work was to study the genetic variability among the wild boars, crossbred animals and pigs using microsatellite markers. Five genetic groups were studied. The fragments of three microsatellites developed for Sus scrofa domestica - IGF1, ACTG2 and TNFB - were amplified through PCR technique to evaluate the expected intra populacion variability (He) and observed (Ho) heterozygosity, and endogamy coefficient (F IS ) within each population and inter population variability F IS , testing relationship among five genetic groups to establish the genetic distance among them. The high level of observed heterozygosity values varied between 0.537 and 0.7871. Generally, F IS was low, suggesting that the endogamy did not exist between the tested animals.
ABSTRACT
The association between G316A growth hormone polymorphism and quantitative traits was investigated in an F2 population of pigs. Association analyses were performed using a statistical model that included genotype, sex, batch and sex by genotype interaction as fixed effects and sire as random effect. The polymorphism was associated with the number of right teats (p = 0.03), heart weight (p = 0.04), lung weight (p = 0.05), carcass length determined by the Brazilian carcass classification method (p = 0.04), picnic shoulder weight (p = 0.07), jowl weight (p = 0.01), pH 24 h after slaughtering (p = 0.03) and drip loss (p = 0.01). Interaction between genotype and sex was observed for six performance traits. The additive effect was significant (p < 0.10) for heart weight, jowl weight and pH 24 h after slaughtering. The effect of dominance was significant (p < 0.05) for number of right teats, heart weight, carcass length, picnic shoulder weight and pH 24 h after slaughtering. This study shows that the growth hormone gene is a potential candidate for investigating the phenotypic variation of quantitative traits in pigs, and suggests its possible application in breeding programs.