Association of CAST Gene Polymorphisms with Carcass and Meat Quality Traits in Chinese Commercial Cattle Herds

• Published in: Asian-australasian journal of animal sciences Vol. 23; no. 11; pp. 1405 - 1411
• Main Authors: Li, Jiao, Zhang, Lu-Pei, Gan, Qian-Fu, Li, Jun-Ya, Gao, Hui-Jiang, Yuan, Zheng-Rong, Gao, Xue, Chen, Jin-Bao, Xu, Shang-Zhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Korean
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Beef Cattle; Calpastatin Gene; SNPs; Carcass and Meat Quality Traits
• ISSN: 1011-2367; 1976-5517

Calpastatin (CAST), an endogenous inhibitor of the calpains, plays an important role in post-mortem tenderization of meat. The objectives of this study were to investigate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the bovine CAST gene and association with carcass and meat quality traits. A total of 212 cattle from commercial herds were tested in this study including 2 pure introduced breeds, 4 cross populations, and 3 pure Chinese native breeds. Five SNPs were identified at position 2959 (A/G), 2870 (G/A), 3088 (C/T), 3029 (G/A) and 2857 (C/T) in the CAST gene (GenBank Accession No. AF159246). Allele frequencies of SNP2959 and SNP2870 were 0.701 (A) and 0.462 (A), respectively. A general linear model was used to evaluate the associations between the two markers and 7 traits. The results showed that both SNP2959 and SNP2870 were significantly (p<0.01) associated with the Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF), while they had no significant association with the other 6 traits in the whole population. However, in Chinese native pure breeds, only SNP2870 had significant association with WBSF (p<0.05). The simultaneous analysis of two-marker genotype effects indicated animals containing the A/G haplotype (A for SNP2959 and G for SNP2870) tended to have lower shear force than those containing the G/A haplotype, and, especially, animals homozygous for the A/G haplotype had approximately 2 kg lower shear force than those homozygous for the G/A haplotype (p<0.01). These results suggested that both markers may be effective for the marker-assisted selection of meat quality traits in Chinese commercial herds, especially SNP2870 which can be used for Chinese native cattle.