A series of articles in the BMC series and GigaScience accompany the publication of the swine genome sequence

Today sees the publication of thegenome sequence of the domestic piginNatureby theSwine Genome Sequencing Consortiumandsequencing of the Wuzhishan miniature piginGigaScience. Accompanying these publications are a litter of companion articles in a BioMed Centralcross-journal article series.

Yutao Du, Shutang Feng and colleaguesdescribe the independentgenome sequencing of the Wuzhishan miniature pigin the journalGigaScience. This breed is an up and coming model for human medical applications and its sequencing provides important information about genetic similarities and differences between the genes involved in coronary artery disease and drug targets in humans and pigs. Also they found that the breed has lost one species of virus incorporated into the genome, unlike other pig breeds, increasing the potential for xenotransplantation between the pigs and humans.

Duroc (left) and Wuzhishan (right) pigs: subjects of the two sequencing projects. Credit: Duroc adapted fromimage by David Merrett on Flickr, Creative Commons 2.0

Medical Models

Several articles in the series explore the biomedical importance of the genome sequence.Eric Waltersand colleaguesreview the role of the pigas a large animal biomedical model and how the pig genome sequence improves our understanding. They explain that the pig is a very good model of cardiovascular disease, and the only animal to accurately recapitulate cystic fibrosis symptoms.

Tom Freemanand colleagues describe the first detailedgene expression atlasof the domestic pig. This provides an important new resource for study of the physiology of mammalian tissues. They demonstrate this with a detailed look at the gastrointestinal tract, highlighting several candidate genes for gastrointestinal diseases. Other articles in the series surveyprohormone and convertase genes,olfactory gene repertoireandbeta-defensin genesin the pig genome.

Meaty findings

Other articles focus on the relevance of the genome sequence to understanding the pig as food animal.Pamela Wiener,Rob Ogdenand colleagues describe a newgenetic diagnostic assayable to distinguish between British traditional pig breeds. The authors explain that mislabelling is prevalent in the food industry but their assay can successfully distinguish pork products from different traditional breeds that often command a price premium over commercial breeds.

Finally, some further articles explore the structure of the pig genome, and the assembly and annotation of its sequence. In one articleMartien Groenenand colleaguesmapped recombination across the genome, finding sex-specific recombination rates and correlations with GC content.Bertrand Servinand colleaguesdescribe the use of radiation hybrid mappingin assembly of the genome.

All these articles and more are available to read on theseries homepage.

Images of porcine interphase chromosome territories in nuclei derived from embryonic and adult fibroblasts, mesenchymal stem cells and lymphocytes. Taken from Foster et al.BMC Cell Biology 13:30