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MAPPING OF PIG GENES COULD LEAD TO GREENER AGRICULTURE, NEW HUMAN MEDICINES
Jan. 15, 2024
by Aarhus University, located in Aarhus, Denmark
Researchers from Aarhus University have carried out complex genetic analyses of hundreds of pigs and humans to identify differences and similarities. This new knowledge can be used to ensure healthier pigs for farmers and can help the pharmaceutical industry breed better laboratory pigs for testing new medicines.
It may sound strange, but we can actually learn more about ourselves by studying pigs. Pigs and humans are pretty similar. Our organs, our skin, and the way many diseases develop are largely the same.
Pigs have, therefore, long been used to develop and test new medicines, even though pigs are larger, more expensive, and more difficult to use in experiments than rats and mice.
And now, pigs may become even more valuable as laboratory animals because researchers from the Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics at Aarhus University have mapped the most important genetic similarities between pigs and humans. Their research is published in Nature Genetics.
The researchers have not only identified the genes that are the same in humans and pigs; they have also identified the so-called 'transcriptome' across a number of tissue types. Where the genome includes all the genes found in the DNA of our cells, whether active or inactive, the transcriptome includes the genes that are active in the different types of cells in our body, says Lingzhao Fang, one of the prominent researchers behind the new findings.
"We examined which genes are active and how they are regulated in 34 different tissue types in pigs and compared this with similar studies in humans. We looked at everything from testicular tissue to skin cells and various brain cells," he says. He continues, "No one has ever conducted a study at this scale and comprehensiveness, and we hope the new knowledge can make a difference in agriculture and the pharmaceutical industry."
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