Genome wide association study in Nellore cattle for quantitative and qualitative characteristics of carcass and meat

• Grant number: 13/23946-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: February 14, 2014
• End date: August 10, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Genetics and Improvement of Domestic Animals
• Principal Investigator: Carmen Josefina Contreras Castillo
• Grantee: Anirene Galvão Tavares Pereira
• Supervisor: Tad Stewart Sonstegard
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/02552-0 - Genome Association Study in Nellore cattle for quantitative and qualitative characteristics of carcass and meat, BP.DR

Abstract

The cattle industry is one of the main highlights of the Brazilian agribusiness on the world stage, with Brazil holds the second largest herd effective in the world, with about 200 million head, and the great expanse of Brazilian territory generates products with varying quality, from prime cuts until meats valued less. The end of the 80 marks the generation of tools for animal breeding and the last wave of technological innovation represents a revolution bringing methodologies to identify and characterize SNP markers so mass. Thus, it becomes possible to identify predictors of quality and increased understanding of the biology of muscle, this knowledge has implications for improving the quality characteristics such as pH, water holding capacity, color, smoothness, covering fat and marbling. Another important perspective of application of genomic knowledge is the identification and mapping of genes that influence the expression of economically important traits, statistical associations between genomic loci and hundreds of complex traits, increasing the understanding of important molecular pathways and biological. Thus, the objective of this study is to generate knowledge about the mechanisms involved in the manifestation of qualitative and quantitative characteristics related to carcass and meat from Nellore cattle from the previous survey of quality characteristics of 667 cattle, assessed values pH, loin eye area and fat thickness, marbling, maturity, color, weight loss and cooking drip and shear force. The DNA samples of the animals will be genotyped to determine the single-site polymorphisms and correlated quality characteristics through genome association study by GWAS. Expected to identify chromosomal regions associated with phenotypic characteristics studied, showing genes and variants that act in the processes related to meat quality in cattle zebu, this knowledge with potential biotechnological applications to improve the quality of meat. (AU)