Recent Southeast Asian domestication and Lapita dispersal of sacred male pseudohermaphroditic “tuskers” and hairless pigs of Vanuatu

Recent analyses of global pig populations revealed strict correlations between mtDNA phylogenies and geographic locations. An exception was the monophyletic “Pacific clade” (PC) of pigs not previously linked to any specific location. We examined mtDNA sequences of two varieties of Vanuatu sacred pigs, the male pseudohermaphroditicNarave from the island of Malo (n = 9) and the hairlessKapia from the island of Tanna (n = 9), as well as control pigs (n = 21) from the islands of Malo, Tanna, and Epi and compared them with GenBank sequences to determine (i ) the distribution of PC and introduced domestic lineages within Vanuatu, (ii ) relationship between theNarave andKapia , and (iii ) origin of the PC. All of theNarave share two PC mtDNA sequences, one of which matches the sequence of aNarave collected in 1927, consistent with an unbroken maternal descent of these intersex pigs from the original pigs brought to Vanuatu 3,200 years ago. One-third of theKapia share a single PC lineage also found in theNarave . The remainingKapia lineages are associated with recently introduced, globally distributed domestic breeds. The predominantNarave lineage is also shared with two wild boars from Vietnam. These data suggest that PC pigs were recently domesticated within Southeast Asia and dispersed during the human colonization of Remote Oceania associated with the Lapita cultural complex. More extensive sampling of Southeast Asian wild boar diversity may refine the location of Pacific pig domestication and potentially the proximate homeland of the Lapita cultural complex.