Pig Genome Project May Pave The Way For Better Bacon

Could bacon get any tastier?

Pig scientists and breeders say indeed it could, now that the pig genome has been sequenced and a trove of new genetic information is available.

Tenderness, fat content and meat color are targets for breeders hoping to improve the pork on our plates.

Tenderness, fat content and meat color are targets for breeders hoping to improve the pork on our plates.

The Swine Genome Sequencing Consortium, an international group of researchers, published their analysis of the genome this week in Nature.

The group spelled out the pattern of DNA on all of the chromosomes of a female domesticated pig. That data is now freely available to anyone in swine science and beyond.

For thousands of years, humans have been breeding swine, choosing pigs that had favorable traits such as bigger size or leaner meat to create a new generation of pigs with those characteristics.

With the full genome, breeders will now be able to pinpoint the specific genes behind those traits. They will take "pigs that have at least one copy of the favorable version [of a gene] and use that pig to breed the next generation," says Jack C.M. Dekkers, a professor of animal breeding and genetics at Iowa State University in Ames. Some researchers may even use the information to do genetic modification of pigs.

The animal was a prime candidate for genome sequencing because it is a model for biomedical research and a critically important food source, notes Lawrence Schook, vice president for research at the University of Illinois and a co-author on the study.

Tastier pork could certainly be an outcome of this research, too, Schook and Dekkers say. What makes a pig tasty, however, is subject to debate and cultural preference. In some parts of Asia, Schook notes, breeders value fat content more than American breeders do.

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Pig Genome Project May Pave The Way For Better Bacon