Reporting 678 putative cSNPs from full-length enriched cDNA sequences of the Korean native pig

Sequences from the clones of full-length enriched cDNA libraries serve as valuable resources for functional genomic studies. We have analysed 1970 high-quality chromatograms (Phred value >or= 30) that were obtained from sequencing the 5' ends of brainstem, liver, neocortex and spleen clones derived from full-length enriched cDNA libraries from Korean native pigs. In addition, 50,000 pig expressed sequence tag (EST) sequence trace files were obtained from Genbank and combined with our sequencing information to facilitate SNP identification in silico. The process generated 8118 contigs, of which 239 included minimum one sequence from Korean native pig and contained 678 putative coding single nucleotide polymorphisms (cSNPs). Of these, 33 putative cSNPs were randomly selected for confirmatory analysis and validated using 20 pigs from four different breeds (Duroc, Landrace, Yorkshire, Korean native pig). Of the 33 putative cSNPs, 20 were confirmed (61%), which was similar to the frequency reported in other studies. We also identified 15 new cSNPs from the validation process, which were not detected by our in silico analysis. Our study shows that analysing genetically diverse pig breeds including the Korean native pig could serve as a useful strategy for generating a large number of cSNPs.