Association Study of Functional Candidate Genes for Meat Tenderness in Hanwoo Cattle

Phuong Thanh N.  Dinh1   Yoonji  Chung1   Dong Jae  Lee1   Dong Hun  Kang2   Bo Hye  Park2   Ki Yong  Chung2   Seung Hwan Lee1,*   

1Division of Animal & Dairy Science, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 34134, Korea
2Department of Beef Science, Korea National College of Agriculture and Fisheries, Jeonju, 54874, Republic of Korea

Abstract

Hanwoo (Korean cattle) is the most profitable cattle as meat-type one since 1960s with the cherished role in the food industry due to its palatability, which is performed by several characteristics such as tenderness, juiciness, or flavor. Meat tenderness is one of the most important features for the quality of meat and is affected subjectively and objectively by several factors. Therefore, it is essential to identify the distribution of potentially functional SNPs or candidate regions associated with tenderness. Starting from 12 candidate genes extracted from previous study, including CNOT3, OSCAR, NLRP5, PIBF1, ITBG3, COL11A1, COL1A, COL24A1, COL28A, COL2A1, COL4A3 and COL6A3, an association study for tenderness in 1161 Hanwoo beef cattle was performed using linear mixed model through MLMA module of GCTA software, fitting a genetic relationship matrix built from 11,227,701 SNPs of the whole genome and 7 environmental factors to predict the effects of 730 candidate SNPs. SNP that fitted to the model having the p-value < 0.01 will be in a significant association with the trait. 10 SNPs and 7 SNPs related to tenderness of semimembranosus area (S_SF) and longissimus dorsi area (D_SF) were detected, respectively. Most of them are phenotypic variations of collagen family genes, including: COL1A1, COL4A3, COL6A3 and COL11A1. This result suggests an attempt to explore effective biomarkers for meat tenderness trait in Hanwoo cattle.

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1. Histogram of the Warner – Bratzler Shear Force of semimembranosus meat (left) and longissimus dorsi meat (right)