Cytogenetic Studies in Crossbred Pigs

Karyological investigation pertaining to 30 crossbred pigs (both sexes) maintained at AICRP, Tirupati was undertaken in order to study the chromosomal profile of the crossbred pigs and their morphometric measurements. The cells had the usual diploid complement of 38 chromosomes (2n = 38) and a fundamental number of 64 as in the exotic pigs with XY complement in males and XX complement in females. The karyotype of crossbred pig was characterized by 5 pairs of submetacentric chromosomes (1-5), next two pairs were sub telocentric (6-7), subsequent 5 pairs were metacentric (8-12) and remaining six pairs were telocentric (13-18). A detailed idiogram was constructed from the results obtained. First chromosome was the longest pair and thirteenth pair was the second largest, while Ychromosome was the smallest in the karyotype of the pig. The X chromosome was metacentric, but not readily distinguishable from the autosome pair number 9, while Y chromosome was metacentric.