Genetic variation on wild boar (Sus scrofa) populations from Argentina through a fragment of mitochondrial cytochrome b

SAGUA MARA; FIGUEROA CARLOS; CARPINETTI BRUNO; FARACE LUJAN; FERNÁNDEZ GABRIELA; MERINO MARIANO

Velenje

Congreso; 10. mednarodni kongres o divjem pra?iču; 2014

ERICo

The European wild boar (Sus scrofa) was first introduced into Argentina in 1906 by the landowner, Pedro Luro, who brought seven Siberian hogs to his property in La Pampa province for hunting purposes. In 1924, Aaron de Anchorena moved a number of caucasian wild boar from Barra de San Juan in Uruguay to the Rio Negro province. More recently, in Entre Rios province a new population of unknown origin emerged during the 1940s. The wild boar?s ability to adapt to different climates, an omnivorous diet, high reproductive rates as well as the almost total absence of natural predators have allowed the species to spread across the country. The main aim of this work was to determine, using molecular techniques, the expansion pattern of the wild boar in Argentina. For this purpose, a fragment of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome b was used. A 552-bp of the gene was analyzed for 37 samples, representatives of the geographic range of expansion of the species in the country, as well as 26 sequences retrieved from GenBank, pertaining to Uruguayan, European and Asiatic wild boar, as well as commercial pig breeds. The phylogenetic analysis performed by the Neighbor Joining (NJ) method revealed a large clade comprising the majority of the Argentinian samples together and the Western European wild boar and feral pigs. However, there was also a minor clade, three samples from the region where this species emerged in the 1940?s, and also the Asian and Eastern European sequences. Commercial pig breeds were present in both clades. Data analysis performed using DnaSP 5.10 for the Argentinian samples showed the presence of 14 variable sites and 5 haplotypes. Haplotype diversity was 0.429-SD = 0.332 and nucleotide diversity 0.00378-SD = 0.00239. The average number of nucleotide differences was k = 2.09989. Only two haplotypes were carried by a single individual. This result cannot demonstrate the expansion pattern of the wild boar in Argentina, but showed that this species is highly intercrossed with both feral and domestic pigs; and that the majority of wild boar populations in Argentina are descendants of a Western Europe lineage, although there is also a small Eastern and Asian lineage present in the country.