Transcriptomic Prediction of Piglet Vitality from Umbilical Cord Blood of Purebreds and Crossbreds born in the Same Litter – Comparison of Meishan and Large White Sows

Abstract Text: Crossbred piglets from Large White sows showed faster early development as compared to their purebred counterparts (P<0.01). In Meishan sows, crossbred females were heavier than purebred females from d1 on, but no difference in relative growth rate was found between purebreds and crossbreds. Piglet growth and behaviour traits related to vitality were lowly correlated. However, both trait categories were involved in differences between the 8 genetic groups defined by the combination of sex and genotype. From this experimental design, 2,247 differentially expressed genes were identified with a significance threshold of 1%, including 39 genes related to discrepancies between genetic groups, and 45 and 1962 genes differentially expressed according to sex and genotype respectively. The co-variation between the umbilical cord transcriptome profiles and phenotypes was measured. Clusters of genes that co-vary with growth rate in early lactation were identified.

Keywords:

piglet

vitality

crossbred effects

transcriptomics