Journal of Animal Breeding and Genomics (J Anim Breed Genom)
Indexed in KCI
OPEN ACCESS, PEER REVIEWED
pISSN 1226-5543
eISSN 2586-4297
Research Article

Network propagation prioritization of GWAS candidate genes for Hanwoo carcass traits

1Department of Applied Biotechnology, Hankyong National University, Anseong 17579, Korea
2Gyeonggi Regional Research Center, Hankyong National University, Anseong 17579, Korea

Correspondence to Hong Sik Kong, E-mail: kebinkhs@hknu.ac.kr

Volume 10, Number 1, Pages 25–32, March 2026.
Journal of Animal Breeding and Genomics 2026, 10(1), 25–32. https://doi.org/10.12972/jabng.2026.10.1.3
Received on March 12, 2026, Revised on March 24, 2026 , Accepted on March 24, 2026 , Published on March 31, 2026 .
Copyright © 2026 Korean Society of Animal Breeding and Genetics.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0).

ABSTRACT

Carcass weight (CW), ribeye area (EMA), backfat thickness (BF), and marbling score (MS) are economically important carcass traits of Hanwoo cattle. However, significant signals detected by genome-wide association studies (GWASs) are often difficult to interpret mechanistically owing to their polygenic architecture and linkage disequilibrium (LD), which may obscure the causal genes and pathways. In this study, we defined candidate genes significantly reported in three Hanwoo carcass-trait GWASs as seeds and applied network propagation to Cytoscape–STRING protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks to (i) re-rank trait-specific candidates in a network-informed manner and (ii) propose additional connected candidates that were not directly observed in GWAS (nonseed connectors). After constructing a Bos taurus STRING network, we built trait-specific networks by including a maximum of 20 additional interactors (interactors = 20) and computed the diffusion (heat) scores and ranks. CW and EMA repeatedly prioritized growth- and skeletal/muscle development–related candidates (the PLAG1–CHCHD7 axis) among the top-ranked non-seed genes. For BF, autophagy- and insulin resistance–related candidates (BECN1 and ENPP1) were prioritized, whereas for MS, a triglyceride synthesis and lipid droplet formation candidate (GPAT4) emerged as a top-ranked non-seed gene. Overall, this approach integrates heterogeneous GWAS findings at the network level, structures trait-relevant biological pathways, and efficiently narrows down the targets for downstream validation.

KEYWORDS

Hanwoo, carcass traits, Genome-wide association studies, Cytoscape, STRING, network propagation

INTRODUCTION

Under publication

CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article is reported.

REFERENCES

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