Pig-Typical Gene Pool Characteristics in Wild Boars from Vojvodina, Serbia: A Study of Genetic Diversity, Differentiation, Assignment, and Admixture

Summary The aim of this study was to examine whether and to what extent wild boars, Sus scrofa, from Vojvodina, Serbia, exhibited pig-typical gene pool characteristics. We used 16 microsatellite markers that have already been proven to distinguish between wild boars from eastern Austria and pigs. We screened genotypes of 21 wild boars from Vojvodina, 20 Mangulica (Serbian Managaliza) and 4 Hungarian Mangaliza as well as 48 commercial slaughter pig (CSP) samples. The wild boars exhibited relatively high genetic diversity, but no significant spatial structuring across Vojvodina. Our analyses of factorial correspondence, Bayesian assignment, as well as genetic structure and admixture demonstrated a clear distinction between wild boars, Mangulica, Hungarian Mangaliza, and CSPs. The latter were characterized by admixture of variable portions of six genetic clusters, while wild boars, Mangulica, and Hungarian Mangaliza were characterized largely by single genetic clusters, respectively; that finding was in strong contrast to earlier results showing presence of several genetic clusters in Austrian wild boars but only one cluster in CSPs. Two (9.5%) of the wild boar samples were massively introgressed by CSPs (or represented pig samples, possibly due to sample confusion). All wild boars harbored at least very small portions of pig-typical gene pool characteristics, supposedly representing signals of historical introgressions or incomplete gene pool differentiation during domestication. Mangulica-typical signals were also found in the wild boars, but at a significantly lower level than CSP-signals. A more comprehensive data set may reveal possible hot spots of introgression by Mangulica or CSPs in wild boars from Vojvodina, particularly when accompanied by other molecular markers, such as mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences or SNPs.