ArticlePLoS genetics2009
Contrasting mode of evolution at a coat color locus in wild and domestic pigs.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 112 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
112 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 279 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Meta-Assembly of Selection Signatures in Cattle.PloS one · 2016Pooled it
- Ultrarapid MC1R protein and associated plumage color evolution in the domestic chicken.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Genomic insights into population structure, genetic diversity, and key traits of Jiangxi indigenous pigs.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- Ancient Genomics Reveals the Origin, Dispersal, and Human Management of East Asian Domestic Pigs.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Seasonal changes in coat colour and sexual size dimorphism in a subtropical ungulate.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Archaeogenomic insights into commensalism and regional variation in pig management in Neolithic northwest Europe.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Evolution under intensive industrial breeding: skull size and shape comparison between historic and modern pig lineages.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Discovery of Potential Candidate Genes for Coat Colour in Wuzhishan Pigs by Integrating SNPs and mRNA Expression Analysis.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Multiomics analysis reveals signatures of selection and loci associated with complex traits in pigs.iMeta · 2024Article
- Whole-genome resequencing reveals melanin deposition candidate genes of Luning chicken.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- The Domestication of Wild Boar Could Result in a Relaxed Selection for Maintaining Olfactory Capacity.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- Exploring the Maintaining Period and the Differentially Expressed Genes between the Yellow and Black Stripes of the Juvenile Stripe in the Offspring of Wild Boar and Duroc.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Introgression Underlies Phylogenetic Uncertainty But Not Parallel Plumage Evolution in a Recent Songbird Radiation.Systematic biology · 2024Article
- Integrating Multiple Database Resources to Elucidate the Gene Flow in Southeast Asian Pig Populations.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Genomic evidence for domestication selection in three hatchery populations of Chinook salmon,Evolutionary applications · 2024Article
- Validation of selection signatures for coat color in the Podolica Italiana gray cattle breed.Frontiers in genetics · 2024Article
- Genetic and Phenotypic Characteristics of Belted Pig Breeds: A Review.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Review
- Signatures of Admixture and Genetic Uniqueness in the Autochthonous Greek Black Pig Breed Deduced from Gene Polymorphisms Affecting Domestication-Derived Traits.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Possible origins and implications of atypical morphologies and domestication-like traits in wild golden jackals (Canis aureus).Scientific reports · 2023Article
52 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite having only begun approximately 10,000 years ago, the process of domestication has resulted in a degree of phenotypic variation within individual species normally associated with much deeper evolutionary time scales. Though many variable traits found in domestic animals are the result of relatively recent human-mediated selection, uncertainty remains as to whether the modern ubiquity of long-standing variable traits such as coat color results from selection or drift, and whether the underlying alleles were present in the wild ancestor or appeared after domestication began. Here, through an investigation of sequence diversity at the porcine melanocortin receptor 1 (MC1R) locus, we provide evidence that wild and domestic pig (Sus scrofa) haplotypes from China and Europe are the result of strikingly different selection pressures, and that coat color variation is the result of intentional selection for alleles that appeared after the advent of domestication. Asian and European wild boar (evolutionarily distinct subspecies) differed only by synonymous substitutions, demonstrating that camouflage coat color is maintained by purifying selection. In domestic pigs, however, each of nine unique mutations altered the amino acid sequence thus generating coat color diversity. Most domestic MC1R alleles differed by more than one mutation from the wild-type, implying a long history of strong positive selection for coat color variants, during which time humans have cherry-picked rare mutations that would be quickly eliminated in wild contexts. This pattern demonstrates that coat color phenotypes result from direct human selection and not via a simple relaxation of natural selective pressures.
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