Investigation of the origin and genetic diversity of wild boars in Northeast Asia via mitochondrial D-loop markers

Abstract Background Northeast Asia is one of the most important wild boar resources habitats in China. The origin and genetic diversity of wild boars in this region are not currently clear. Results In this study, we determined the mtDNA D-loop sequences of 23 wild boars from Northeast Asia and analysed the sequences of 480 Eurasian wild boars available from NCBI. The Eurasian wild boar sequence pool included a total of 21 D-loop haplotypes, among which 27 SNPs were distributed. The phylogenetic tree showed that Eurasian wild boars could be divided into two major groups: Northeast Asian wild boars were mainly concentrated in group A, dominated by East Asian wild boars, while group B consisted of West Asian and European wild boars. Haplotypes 2, 11, 13, and 14 of group A in Southeast China shared position 120C with the outgroup, indicating that they might represent the ancestral group of wild boars. The observed geographical distribution and haplotype heat maps further showed that all the Eurasian wild boars were separately distributed and differentiated from native-born boars in Southeast China. Similarly, Northeast Asian wild boars belonged to one of the branches. Conclusions Taken together, the results show that Heilongjiang Province exhibits higher wild boar diversity than Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia and South Korea and is likely to be the distribution centre in Northeast Asia.