Dynamic changes in the transcriptome and metabolome of pig ovaries across developmental stages and gestation.

Background: The ovary is a central organ in the reproductive system that produces oocytes and synthesizes and secretes steroid hormones. Healthy development and regular cyclical change in the ovary is crucial for regulating reproductive processes. However, the key genes and metabolites that regulate ovarian development and pregnancy have not been fully elucidated.

A chromosome-level genome of Chenghua pig provides new insights into the domestication and local adaptation of pigs.

As a country with abundant genetic resources of pigs, the domestication history of pigs in China and the adaptive evolution of Chinese pig breeds at different latitudes have rarely been elucidated at the genome-wide level. To fill this gap, we first assembled a high-quality chromosome-level genome of the Chenghua pig and used it as a benchmark to analyse the genomes of 272 samples from three genera of three continents. The divergence of the three species belonging to three genera, Phacochoerus africanus, Potamochoerus porcus, and Sus scrofa, was assessed.

A single-cell transcriptome atlas of pig skin characterizes anatomical positional heterogeneity.

Different anatomical locations of the body skin show differences in their gene expression patterns depending on different origins, and the inherent heterogeneous information can be maintained in adults. However, highly resolvable cellular specialization is less well characterized in different anatomical regions of the skin. Pig is regarded as an excellent model animal for human skin research in view of its similar physiology to human.

Small extracellular vesicles derived from dermal fibroblasts promote fibroblast activity and skin development through carrying miR-218 and ITGBL1.

Skin thickness is closely related to the appearance of human skin, such as sagging and wrinkling, which primarily depends on the level of collagen I synthesized by dermal fibroblasts (DFs). Small extracellular vesicles (SEVs), especially those derived from human DFs (HDFs), are crucial orchestrators in shaping physiological and pathological development of skin. However, the limited supply of human skin prevents the production of a large amount of HDFs-SEVs, and pig skin is used as a model of human skin.