Possible Association of Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in Titin Gene with Growth-Related Trait in Japanese Black Beef Cattle

Growth performance as well as marbling is the main breeding objectives in Japanese Black cattle, the major beef breed in Japan. The researchers have recently reported that a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP), referred to as g.231054C>T in promoter region of the Titin (TTN) gene was associated with marbling in Japanese Black beef cattle with the T allele being associated with a high level of marbling. The TTN is known to be involved in myofibrillogenesis and has been previously shown to be located within genomic region of a quantitative trait locus for rib eye area. Thus, the TTN was considered as a positional functional candidate for the gene responsible for growth performance. In this study, the researchers analyzed the effect of the TTN g.231054C>T SNP genotypes on the growth-related carcass traits in Japanese Black beef cattle. The SNP was marginally associated with rib eye area in two experiments using 101 sires (p = 0.067) and 820 paternal half-sib progeny steers from 3 sires homozygous for C allele at the g.231054C>T (p = 0.090) in Japanese Black beef cattle. These findings suggest possible effect of the g.231054C>T on the growth-related trait in Japanese Black beef cattle. The TTN SNP polymorphism may be useful for effective marker-assisted selection to increase the beef productivity in Japanese Black beef cattle