PSAP gene variants and haplotypes reveal significant effects on carcass and meat quality traits in Chinese Simmental-cross cattle

摘要

Prosaposin () is the precursor protein of four small lysosomalglycoproteins and plays vital roles in muscle growth and development of beefcattle. The aim of this study is to evaluate the association between gene polymorphisms with carcass composition and meat qualitytraits of Chinese Simmental-cross cattle. In the present study, six SNPs wereidentified within intron 10 and exon 11 of the gene from 380beef cattle by direct DNA sequencing, and 47 traits of carcass compositionand meat quality were measured in the studied population. Then, therelationship between variants of gene with economic traits wasanalyzed using statistical methods. The result revealed that I10-65G    A,I10-313C    T, E11-87C    T, and E11-93C    G were significantlyassociated with carcass traits, such as dressing percentage, fat coveragerate, carcass depth, and hind leg width, and I10-162C    T andI10-274C    T were significantly associated with marbling score traits. Inaddition, the individuals with GCCCGC haplotype showed significant higherdressed weight, dressing percentage and rib eye area (   0.01), and theindividuals with ACCTCC haplotype showed a significant association with thepH of beef and backfat thickness in the cattle population (   0.05). Ourresults indicate that these SNPs and haplotypes of the gene arepossible important genetic factors that influence carcass composition andmeat quality traits, and they may be useful markers in future marker-assistedselection (MAS) programs in beef cattle breeding and production.