Genetic parameters of carcass and meat quality traits in different muscles (longissimus dorsi and semimembranosus) of Hanwoo (Korean cattle)1

Abstract

We estimated heritability () and genetic and phenotypic correlations for carcass and meat quality traits of longissimus dorsi (LD) and semimembranosus (SM) muscles in 30-mo-old Hanwoo steers. Variance and covariance components were estimated using REML procedures under univariate and bivariate models. The mean carcass weight (CWT), eye muscle area (EMA), back fat thickness (BFT), and marbling score (MS) were 428.20 ± 46.30 kg, 87.38 ± 8.54 cm2, 13.00 ± 5.14 mm, and 5.21 ± 1.56, respectively. The mean CIE reflectance of meat lightness (L*), redness (a*), and yellowness (b*) were 40.01 ± 2.73, 22.37 ± 2.18, and 10.35 ± 1.46, respectively, in LD muscles and 36.33 ± 2.44, 22.91 ± 2.43, and 10.25 ± 1.65, respectively, in SM muscles. The mean Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBSF), intramuscular fat content (IMF), water-holding capacity (WHC), and protein and ash content in LD and SM muscles were 3.84 ± 0.96 and 6.52 ± 1.21 kg, 15.91 ± 4.39 and 5.10 ± 1.94%, 62.07 ± 3.38 and 71.61 ± 2.06%, 20.01 ± 1.39 and 21.34 ± 0.89%, and 0.80 ± 0.10 and 0.93 ± 0.07, respectively. The estimates of CWT, EMA, BFT, and MS were 0.51 ± 0.13, 0.45 ± 0.13, 0.29 ± 0.09, and 0.22 ± 0.08, respectively. The estimates were moderate for meat quality traits and were 0.37 ± 0.12, 0.40 ± 0.12, 0.33 ± 0.10, 0.33 ± 0.10, 0.30 ± 0.11, and 0.24 ± 0.09 for L*, WBSF, IMF, WHC, and protein and ash content, respectively, in LD muscle; estimates from SM muscle were comparatively low (0.08 ± 0.06 to 0.25 ± 0.09). Estimates of for a* and b* were also low (0.08 ± 0.06 to 0.13 ± 0.07). Carcass weight had a moderate, positive genetic correlation with EMA (0.60 ± 0.13) and a weak correlation with MS and BFT. The genetic correlations among the 3 colorimeter variants were strong and positive within and between muscles. Intramuscular fat content had moderate to strong and negative genetic correlations with WBSF (-0.49 ± 0.18), WHC (-0.99 ± 0.01), and protein (-0.93 ± 0.04) and ash content (-0.98 ± 0.06) in LD muscle, whereas the associations were less pronounced in SM muscle. In general, CWT and EMA had low genetic and phenotypic correlations with meat quality traits, which suggests that the traits are independent and have distinct genetic contributions in each muscle. Conversely, with few exceptions, meat quality traits had genetic and phenotypic correlations with MS and BFT. In conclusion, the estimated genetic parameters for carcass and meat quality traits could be used for genetic evaluation and breeding programs in Korean Hanwoo cattle populations.

Genetic parameters and correlations of related feed efficiency, growth, and carcass traits in Hanwoo beef cattle

“…In the present study we evaluated, for the first time, the genetic parameters of KR and RGR (indirect measures of feed efficiency) and their correlations with growth and carcass traits in Hanwoo beef cattle. Table 2 In the present study, the heritability estimates for carcass traits were in accordance with most of the previous studies in Hanwoo cattle [12,14,18], except those of Kim et al [11] and Bhuiyan et al [13]. These disagreement in the heritability estimates may be due to differences in slaughter age of animals measured which likely leading to differences in the structure of data among Hanwoo populations.…”

“…As depicted in Table 3, the moderate, positive genetic correlations (0.55) between CW and EMA obtained in our study are similar to the results of Choi et al [12] and Bhuiyan et al [13], which were 0.52 and 0.60, respectively, but disagree with the findings of Kim et al [11] and Do et al [32], who reported lower (0.07) or greater (0.80) genetic correlations, respectively than our results for Hanwoo cattle. Additionally, positive genetic (0.52 and 0.45, respectively) and phenotypic (0.44 and 0.39, respectively) correlations between CW and EMA shown by [19,20] in Brahman cattle.…”

“…Studies have also reported the estimates for some genetic parameters for feed efficiency traits in Irish cattle [10] and their correlations with growth traits in Nellore cattle [3]. In contrast, although several studies have investigated the genetic parameters estimates for carcass traits in Hanwoo cattle [11][12][13], no estimates of genetic parameters for feed efficiency traits are currently known for this breed.…”

Functional Partitioning of Genomic Variance and Genome-Wide Association Study for Carcass Traits in Korean Hanwoo Cattle Using Imputed Sequence Level SNP Data

“…The carcass and meat quality traits investigated in this study were CWT, EMA, BFT, and MS. Feeding, management, and trait measurements were according to Bhuiyan et al (2017) . Briefly, the cold CWT was taken after chilling for about 24 h. Longissimus dorsi muscle samples (approximately 1.5 kg) were collected from the junction between the 12th and 13th rib for the EMA, MS, and BFT measurements.…”

RNA-seq analysis identifies cytoskeletal structural genes and pathways for meat quality in beef

“…Meat quality phenotypes in beef cattle are economically important traits which are quantitative in nature with usually low to medium genetic control [1,2]. Multiple efforts have been directed to identify genes able to explain part of the phenotypic variability present in meat quality related traits in different populations [3][4][5].…”