Genomic imprinting variances of beef carcass traits and physiochemical characteristics in Japanese Black cattle

Abstract

The objective of this study was to estimate variance components related to imprinting for carcass traits and physiochemical characteristics in Japanese Black cattle. The carcass records obtained from 4,220 Japanese Black feedlot cattle included carcass weight (CW), rib eye area (REA), rib thickness, subcutaneous fat thickness, and beef marbling score (BMS), and the physiochemical characteristics were fat, moisture, glycogen per proportion of moisture content, oleic acid, and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA). To detect gametic effects, an imprinting model was fitted. High additive heritabilities were estimated for all traits (from 0.516 for glycogen to 0.853 for fat) and were reduced in Mendelian heritability. The range of the differences was from 0.002 (CW) to 0.331 (fat and moisture), and the reductions were due to their imprinting variances. The ratio of the imprinting variance to the total additive genetic variance for REA (0.374), BMS (0.291), fat (0.387), moisture (0.388), and MUFA (0.337) were large (p < 0.05). These imprinting variances were due to the maternal contribution and suggested the existence of maternally expressed genomic imprinting effects on the traits in Japanese Black cattle. Therefore, maternal gametic effects should be considered in breeding programs for Japanese Black cattle.

Blood Transcriptome Analysis of Beef Cow with Different Parity Revealed Candidate Genes and Gene Networks Regulating the Postpartum Diseases

“…For example, primiparous cows need more nutrients to maintain their own development, and multiparous cows have higher postpartum morbidity and need prior prevention [ 6 ]. Predicting the risk of postpartum disease and evaluating the calving quality of different parity cows can effectively prolong the profit period of the beef cow [ 7 , 8 ]; reducing the number of feeding heads of reserve cows and the cost of semen consumption and herd renewal [ 9 , 10 ]; in the case of constant herd size, allowing pastures to carry out a higher proportion of active elimination [ 11 ], increasing the intensity of selection [ 12 ], thereby accelerating the genetic progress of herds [ 13 ], and the cost of ranching operations and veterinary drugs is also reduced [ 14 ].…”

“…Japanese black cattle are well-known for producing high-quality beef with a high intramuscular (marbling) fat content, which has been improved through genetic selection over the last half-century [ 15 ]. Previous research on Japanese black cattle has concentrated on genetic traits and management strategies to increase high-quality beef yields [ 7 , 16 , 17 ]. In fact, the effect of cattle genetic improvement through breeding will be more far-reaching and lasting, but it is slower than that of management decision-making.…”

Detection of Genomic Imprinting for Carcass Traits in Cattle Using Imputed High-Density Genotype Data

“…For carcass traits in cattle (i.e., the traits of interest to the present study), genomic imprinting has been reported to account for 8-39% of the total additive genetic variance (Neugebauer et al, 2010;Inoue et al, 2021); while imprinting is a non-additive effect, when not accounted for, imprinting can be confounded with additive effects. The objective of the present study was to detect the presence of genomic imprinting for beef carcass traits [i.e., carcass weight (CW), carcass conformation (CC) and carcass fat (CF)] using phased (with respect to parental origin), highdensity genotype data across the genome.…”