A pan-genome of commercial pig breeds

Genomics related research in animal breeding is usually performed by comparing genomic information to an existing reference genome. However, even if the reference genome is of high quality, the use of a single reference genome has clear drawbacks. Therefore, the breeding community is shifting towards the construction of a pan-genome for important agricultural species. In this study we produced a pig pangenome based on four different breeds (Landrace, Large White, Synthetic, Duroc) using the nanopore long read sequencing technology. We produced chromosome arm level assemblies comparable to the current Sus scrofa 11.1 reference genome. We identified between breed structural variation, which gives a unique insight in the genomic structural variation that define and differentiates breeds. The pig pan-genome will facilitate the discovery of novel variation providing a unique fundamental insight into breed genomic characteristics, which can subsequently be utilized for breeding.