Difference in PNLIP Allele Frequency Distribution Between High-Marbled and Low-Marbled Cattle

摘要

Marbling characterized by the amount and distribution of intramuscular fat is one of the economically important traits of beef cattle. The Pancreatic lipase (Pnlip) gene, involved in the hydrolysis of dietary triglycerides to fatty acids has been previously shown to be regarded as possible candidate for the gene responsible for intramuscular fat content in the rat. It is located within the genomic region of a bovine marbling quantitative trait locus and thus was considered as a positional functional candidate for the marbling gene. In this study, researchers investigated the allele frequency distribution of the Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) in the PNLIP in high and low-marbled cattle. The frequencies of the rs41648171 C, rs41648172 T, rs41648173 T, rs41648174 C, rs41648176 C, rs41648178 T and rs42104801 T alleles were higher in Japanese Black sires with extremely high predicted breeding value for marbling than in the sires with extremely low one. Further as compared to the frequencies of the rs41648172 T, rs41648176 C and rs41648178 T alleles in Japanese Black cattle that has been subjected to a strong selection for high marbling, those in Holstein cattle that has not been selected for high marbling were lower. The findings suggest that the PNLIP SNPs are associated with marbling andmay be useful for effective marker-assisted selection to increase the levels of marbling.