Characterization of the gut microbiome in Wuhuang Pigs and their crossbred offspring

Zhijuan Yan^1*Yiting YANG¹Xinghong Yu¹Ziling Hao¹Yong Du¹Yan Wang¹Yuanyuan Wu²Ye Zhao¹Lili Niu¹Xiaofeng Zhou¹Linyuan Shen¹Mailin Gan^1*Li Zhu^1*

• ¹National Teaching and Experimental Center of Animal, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China
• ²Sichuan Fisheries School, National Teaching and Experimental Center of Animal, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China

As an indigenous Chinese breed, Wuhuang pigs are valued for their stress resistance, tolerance to coarse feed, and high lean meat yield, while Berkshire pigs serve as ideal sires due to superior meat quality and early maturity. To explore the microbial basis of hybrid vigor, we compared the gut microbiota of purebred Wuhuang pigs and Wuhuang – Berkshire hybrids via 16S rDNA sequencing and PICRUSt2 analysis. Hybrids exhibited significantly increased microbial α-diversity and altered β-diversity. Notably, hybrid ceca were enriched with probiotic genera involved in fiber degradation and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production—such as Prevotella, Ruminococcus, Lachnospiraceae, and Roseburia—accompanied by a higher Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes ratio and strengthened microbial network connectivity, suggesting enhanced SCFA capacity and ecological resilience. Predictive functional profiling further revealed significantly elevated activity in hybrid pigs for key metabolic pathways including tryptophan synthesis, pyridoxal salvage, and galacturonic acid metabolism (FDR < 0.05). These results imply that hybrid animals leverage enriched probiotic consortia to augment nutrient metabolism and immune function, thereby supporting improved stress resilience and feed efficiency. This study provides potential microbial targets for future genetic improvement of indigenous pig breeds.