Dissecting production traits using metabolomics in pigs

Italian heavy pigs are mainly raised to produce Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) dry-cured hams. To breed pigs with the characteristics of the meat and legs needed for this purpose, specific selection programmes have been developed, using traits related to the overall fat/lean meat content of the animals, to growth and efficiency of the animals and to ham quality (e.g. intermuscular fat and weight loss at first salting). Metabolites represent simple molecular phenotypes that can be used to deconstruct complex phenotypes in their single biological components. We analysed targeted and untargeted metabolomic profiles (up to 1000 molecules) from plasma of Italian Large White and Italian Duroc pigs for which production traits and their estimated breeding values were available. We studied the relationship between all these simple and complex traits via correlation analyses and multivariate modelling. In general, metabolite abundances poorly correlated genetically with production traits (up to |rG|< 0.15), except for a few metabolites (up to |rG|~ 0.4-0.5). Overall, we obtained a first picture of the correlation between molecular phenotypes and economically relevant traits that could be useful to further exploit their usefulness in designing selection programmes in Italian heavy pig breeds. Acknowledgements: This study has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No. 01059609 (Re-Livestock project).