US - A new paper has revealed that pig breeds such as Tibetan pigs and Min pigs use a unique method to survive when exposed to cold environments.Published in the Journal of Molecular Cell Biology, this has important implications for the swine industry as cold weather is a major cause of death in new-born piglets.Previous studies have shown that mice use brown fat to produce heat and maintain core body temperature without shivering. They do this using an uncoupling protein (UCP1) to convert fat to heat. Most pig breeds come from tropical habitats and so, with no need to produce heat, they lost functional UCP1 around 20 million years ago. This lack of UCP1 makes many pigs susceptible to health problems due to cold.据美国一篇新论文，它揭示了，藏猪、民猪等品种猪在寒冷环境中运用的一种独特生存方法。该论文发表在《分子细胞生物学报》上，由于寒冷天气是导致新生仔猪死亡的一个主要原因，因此这篇论文对养猪业有着非常重要的启示。根据先前研究显示，老鼠不需要通过发抖获取热量，而是通过褐色脂肪组织产生热量，并维持核心体温。它们获取热量的方法是，用一种解偶联蛋白(UCP1)，将脂肪转化成热量。由于大多猪品种来自热带栖息地，它们不需要产热，因此猪在两千万年前失去了基本的解偶联蛋白(UCP1)。正是缺乏了解偶联蛋白(UCP1)，它们才会受到寒冷天气影响，导致健康问题。
