On the origins of American Criollo pigs: A common genetic background with a lasting Iberian signature

American Criollo pigs are thought to descend mainly from those imported from the Iberian Peninsula starting in the late 15th century. Criollo pigs subsequently expanded throughout the Americas, adapting to very diverse environments, and possibly receiving influences from other origins. With the intensification of agriculture in the mid-20th century, cosmopolitan breeds largely replaced Criollo pigs, and the few remaining are mostly maintained by rural communities in marginal areas where they still play an important socio-economic and cultural role. In this study, we used 24 microsatellite markers in samples from 1715 pigs representing 46 breeds with worldwide distribution, including 17 American Criollo breeds, with the major focus of investigating their genetic diversity, structure and breed relationships. We also included representatives of the Iberian, Local British, Hungarian, Chinese and Commercial breeds, as well as Wild Boar, in order to investigate their possible influence in the genetic composition of Criollos. Our results show that, when compared with the other breeds, Criollo pigs present higher levels of genetic diversity, both in terms of allelic diversity and expected heterozygosity. The various analyses indicate that breed differentiation overall explains nearly 21% of the total genetic diversity. Criollo breeds showed their own identity and shared a common genetic background, tending to cluster together in various analyses, even though they differ from each other. A close relationship of Criollos with Iberian breeds was revealed by all the different analyses, and the contribution of Iberian breeds, particularly of the Celtic breeds, is still present in various Criollo breeds. No influence of Chinese breeds was detected on Criollos, but a few were influenced by Commercial breeds or by wild pigs. Our results confirm the uniqueness of American Criollo pigs and the role that Iberian breeds have played in their development. © 2021 Revidatti et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Estudios de biodiversidad en tres razas bovinas autóctonas españolas "en riesgo"

Resumen de la comunicación presentada al III Congreso Ibérico sobre Recursos Genéticos Animale

Changes in anthocyanins profile of anthocyanin enriched bakeries

PATHWAY-27 will evaluate the effectiveness of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), anthocyanins (AC)and beta-glucan (BG) alone or in combination with two other bioactives, chosen for known/claimed effectiveness in reducing some risk factors of Metabolic Syndrome (MS). Determinationof changes in AC profile of AC enriched bakeries is one of the outputs of this project. Buns andbiscuits were enriched with three different concentrations of AC. Extraction of AC from food matrixwas optimised using four different solvent systems. The extraction efficiency was determined bymeasuring total anthocyanin content using pH-differential method. Sepabeads SP850 ion exchangeresin was used for column chromatography. Separation of AC was performed by HPLC. The color ofAC enriched buns was completely purple and some slightly green and brown spots were also detectedin the crust. Anthocyanin enriched biscuits had an excellent taste and flavour and the texture wasnot too compact. Nevertheless, biscuits had brown colour in the outer layer and a purple and greenspots inside as in the buns. Among the extraction solvents methanol containing 0.1% formic acidwas the most efficient solvent. Amount of AC extracted with methanol containing 0.1% formic acidwas 3.71, 1.62 and 1.45 times greater than those of extracted with water containing 0.1% formicacid, methanol containing 1% formic acid and ethanol containing 1% formic acid respectively.The recovery of AC from buns enriched with three different concentrations of AC was changedin between 4.95 to 27.71%. This value for biscuits enriched with three different concentrations ofAC was in between 36.80 to 54.66%. When compared the HPLC chromatogram of AC source andbuns, the main findings were the disappearance of the first peak of AC source in the chromatogramof buns and new peaks, possibly originated from wheat and other ingredients or occurred duringfermentation, in buns. However, determination of the same anthocyanin profiles for biscuits andAC source indicated that food-processing conditions during biscuit production had no effect onthe anthocyanin profile, but other peaks were also identified. The authors participate in the FP7 EUProject PATHWAY-27 ‘Pivotal Assessment of the Effects of Bioactives on the Health and Wellbeing,from Human Genome to Food Industry’ (grant agreement no. 311876)