GENOMICS APPLIED TO IMPROVE THE CONSERVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE MORA ROMAGNOLA PIG BREED

Mora Romagnola is an iconic Italian authochtonous pig breeds, mainly reared in the eastern part of Emilia-Romagna region, in the North of Italy. It is characterized by a distinctive “black and tan” coat colour, a blackish coat with lighter abdominal shades, forward-bent parallel ears, and a characteristic dorsal line of thick and dense bristles known as “Sparta line”. Historically, pigs phenotypically relatable to this breed have been reported in several areas of Northen Italy. With the advent of improved cosmopolitan breeds, Mora Romagnola experienced a strong reduction of its population size that led the breed close to the extinction. Then a conservation program begun in the 1990s to preserve this animal genetic resource that is an important part of local agricultural heritage. The constitution of a Mora Romagnola branded value chain represents the efforts made by the farmers to provide economic value needed for the conservation of this breed. In this study we obtained a comprehensive genomic characterization of the Mora Romagnola breed, by exploring genomic regions under selection, identifying and studying candidate genes affecting economically relevant traits, and assessing the genomic inbreeding levels. Genomic informtion was obtained by genotyping ⁓250 Mora Romagnola pigs using the GGP Porcine HD Array, that can test ⁓70,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Genomic data analyses were carried out with the PLINK software and implementing ad-hoc bioinformatic scripts. Genomic inbreeding information obtained for the pigs of this breed indicated that the Mora Romagnola breed has a moderate to high level of inbreeding, likely due to the recent genetic bottleneck. The pattern of homozygosity within animals showed eleven regions that have been potentially shaped by selective pressure and constitute signatures of selection. The analysis of candidate genes reported several SNPs potentially useful for the authentication of Mora Romagnola products. The integration of genomic data into the Mora Romagnola Herd Book and future breeding plans will enhance the breed economic value and product traceability. The overall results provided insights for the conservation and sustainable breeding of this important pig genomic resource. Acknowledgments: Funded by PSRN (Programma di Sviluppo Rurale Nazionale) SUIS and SUIS-2 projects (co-funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development of the European Union and by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry—MASAF)