在乔治-奥威尔的经典小说《动物庄园》中，猪和人类几乎一模一样。根据一项新的研究发现，现实世界中的猪确与《动物庄园》所描述的那样。通过迄今为止规模最大的猪基因组研究，科学家发现猪拥有很强的适应能力，容易被食物诱惑和驯化，这些特征都与人类非常相似。
根据刊登在《自然》杂志上的研究发现，猪拥有与人类相同的与很多人类疾病有关的基因和蛋白质变异，例如阿尔茨海默病、帕金森氏症以及肥胖症。研究人员指出，通过进一步研究，猪的基因可以孕育出新疗法，对抗这些疾病。首席研究员、荷兰瓦赫宁根大学的马蒂恩-格罗内教授表示：“我们发现了很多与人类疾病有关的基因变异，进一步证明猪是一个非常有价值的生物医药学模型。”
此外，这项研究也揭示了人类如何驯化第一批家猪以及如何饲养猪以获取猪肉背后的一些秘密。现代家猪的祖先最初出现在东南亚，逐渐迁移到欧亚大陆。猪拥有敏锐的嗅觉，能够嗅探出微小的气味差异，但它们的味觉很差。猪的苦味受体基因少于人类，对甜味和肉味的感知也与人类截然不同。
爱丁堡大学教授，参与此项研究的艾伦-阿奇巴尔德指出：“了解影响猪特性的基因有助于揭示它们如何被人类驯化以及为何被驯化。可能的原因在于：它们可以吃一些人类吃起来味道很差的食物。了解现代猪的基因起源非常重要，因为我们需要大量繁育猪以满足日趋增长的猪肉需求，同时还要提高猪抵御新老疾病的能力。”
此项具有突破性的研究由苏格兰、美国和荷兰科学家进行，是迄今为止进行的最深入而全面的家猪及野猪基因组分析。研究发现对猪的养殖具有重要意义。目前，全球每年喂养的猪数量超过10亿头。家牛的祖先已经灭绝，相比之下，猪仍有远亲生活在野外。研究人员表示可以利用在野猪身上发现的基因进一步优化家猪繁育。研究论文执笔人之一的鲍勃-伊斯特表示：“这项研究证明对家畜及其近亲的基础基因组研究能够让我们人类受益。这项研究对农业具有重要意义，有助于我们了解猪的进化，同时也有助于药物的研发。”（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1038/nature11622
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Analyses of pig genomes provide insight into porcine demography and evolution
Martien A. M. Groenen, Alan L. Archibald, Hirohide Uenishi, Christopher K. Tuggle, Yasuhiro Takeuchi, Max F. Rothschild, Claire Rogel-Gaillard, Chankyu Park, Denis Milan, Hendrik-Jan Megens, Shengting Li, Denis M. Larkin, Heebal Kim, Laurent A. F. Frantz, Mario Caccamo, Hyeonju Ahn, Bronwen L. Aken, Anna Anselmo, Christian Anthon, Loretta Auvi, Bouabid Badaoui, Craig W. Beattie, Christian Bendixen,Daniel Berman, Frank Blecha, Jonas Blomberg, Lars Bolund, Mirte Bosse, Sara Botti, Zhan Bujie, Megan Bystrom, Boris Capitanu, Denise Carvalho-Silva, Patrick Chardon, Celine Chen, Ryan Cheng, Sang-Haeng Choi, William Chow, Richard C. Clark, Christopher Clee, Richard P. M. A. Crooijmans, Harry D. Dawson, Patrice Dehais, Fioravante De Sapio, Bert Dibbits, Nizar Drou, Zhi-Qiang Du, Kellye Eversole, Jo?o Fadista, Susan Fairley, Thomas Faraut, Geoffrey J. Faulkner, Katie E. Fowler, Merete Fredholm, Eric Fritz, James G. R. Gilbert, Elisabetta Giuffra, Jan Gorodkin, Darren K. Griffin, Jennifer L. Harrow, Alexander Hayward, Kerstin Howe, Zhi-Liang Hu, Sean J. Humphray, Toby Hunt, Henrik Hornshj, Jin-Tae Jeon, Patric Jern, Matthew Jones, Jerzy Jurka, Hiroyuki Kanamori, Ronan Kapetanovic, Jaebum Kim, Jae-Hwan Kim, Kyu-Won Kim, Tae-Hun Kim, Greger Larson, Kyooyeol Lee, Kyung-Tai Lee, Richard Leggett, Harris A. Lewin, Yingrui Li, Wansheng Liu, Jane E. Loveland, Yao Lu, Joan K. Lunney, Jian Ma, Ole Madsen, Katherine Mann, Lucy Matthews, Stuart McLaren, Takeya Morozumi, Michael P. Murtaugh, Jitendra Narayan, Dinh Truong Nguyen, Peixiang Ni, Song-Jung Oh, Suneel Onteru, Frank Panitz, Eung-Woo Park, Hong-Seog Park, Geraldine Pascal, Yogesh Paudel, Miguel Perez-Enciso, Ricardo Ramirez-Gonzalez, James M. Reecy, Sandra Rodriguez-Zas, Gary A. Rohrer, Lauretta Rund, Yongming Sang, Kyle Schachtschneider, Joshua G. Schraiber, John Schwartz, Linda Scobie, Carol Scott, Stephen Searle, Bertrand Servin, Bruce R. Southey, Goran Sperber, Peter Stadler, Jonathan V. Sweedler, Hakim Tafer, Bo Thomsen, Rashmi Wali, Jian Wang, Jun Wang, Simon White, Xun Xu, Martine Yerle, Guojie Zhang, Jianguo Zhang, Jie Zhang, Shuhong Zhao, Jane Rogers, Carol Churcher & Lawrence B. Schook et al.
For 10,000 years pigs and humans have shared a close and complex relationship. From domestication to modern breeding practices, humans have shaped the genomes of domestic pigs. Here we present the assembly and analysis of the genome sequence of a female domestic Duroc pig (Sus scrofa) and a comparison with the genomes of wild and domestic pigs from Europe and Asia. Wild pigs emerged in South East Asia and subsequently spread across Eurasia. Our results reveal a deep phylogenetic split between European and Asian wild boars ~1 million years ago, and a selective sweep analysis indicates selection on genes involved in RNA processing and regulation. Genes associated with immune response and olfaction exhibit fast evolution. Pigs have the largest repertoire of functional olfactory receptor genes, reflecting the importance of smell in this scavenging animal. The pig genome sequence provides an important resource for further improvements of this important livestock species, and our identification of many putative disease-causing variants extends the potential of the pig as a biomedical model.
