Authors : Hideki Tanomura, Takuji Yamamoto, Youji Muramatsu, Takeshi Ohta, Hiroyuki Kose and Takahisa Yamada
Abstract: Marbling defined by the amount and distribution of intramuscular fat so-called Shimofuri is an economically important trait of beef cattle in Japan. The Pancreatic lipase (Pnlip) gene involved in energy income and fat regulation has been previously shown to be regarded as possible candidate for a rat Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL) responsible for intramuscular fat content. It is located within the genomic region of a bovine QTL for marbling and thus was considered as a positional functional candidate for the gene responsible for marbling. In this study, we showed that Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in the bovine PNLIP were associated with the predicted breeding value for beef marbling standard number by analyses using a population of Japanese Black beef cattle. The effect of genotypes at each of the SNPs on the predicted breeding value for subcutaneous fat thickness was not statistically significant. The findings suggest that PNLIP SNPs may be useful for effective marker-assisted selection to increase the levels of marbling in Japanese Black beef cattle.
Hideki Tanomura, Takuji Yamamoto, Youji Muramatsu, Takeshi Ohta, Hiroyuki Kose and Takahisa Yamada, 2011. The Pancreatic lipase Gene is Associated with Marbling in Japanese Black Beef Cattle. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 10: 1719-1723.