Production and processing studies on calpain-system gene markers for tenderness in Brahman cattle: 1. Growth, efficiency, temperament, and carcass characteristics1

Abstract

Experiments were conducted concurrently at 2 locations to quantify effects and interactions of calpain-system tenderness gene markers on growth, efficiency, temperament, and carcass traits of Brahman cattle. Cattle were selected at weaning from commercial and research herds based on their genotype for commercially available calpastatin (CAST) and calpain 3 (CAPN3) gene markers for beef tenderness. Genotypes for mu-calpain gene markers (CAPN1-4751 and CAPN1-316) were also determined and included in statistical analyses. The New South Wales (NSW) herd was composed of 82 heifers and 82 castrated male cattle with 0 or 2 favorable alleles for CAST and CAPN3. The Western Australia (WA) herd was composed of 173 castrated male cattle with 0, 1, or 2 favorable alleles for CAST and CAPN3. One-half of the cattle at each site were implanted with a hormonal growth promotant (HGP: Revalor-H) during grain finishing. Cattle were backgrounded at pasture for 6 to 8 mo and grain-fed for 117 d (NSW) or 80 d (WA) before slaughter. Individually, or in combination with each other and with CAPN1-4751 status, CAST and CAPN3 status had no significant (all P > 0.05) effects on BW, growth, feed efficiency, or temperament traits. The only significant effect of CAST or CAPN3 on carcass characteristics was a small increase in rib fat with increasing number of favorable CAST alleles (P = 0.042) in the WA herd. There were no significant interactions (all P > 0.05) between the markers, or between the markers and sex or HGP treatment apart from CAST x HGP for area of the M. longissimus lumborum (P = 0.024) in the NSW experiment. Favorable CAST or CAPN3 alleles appear unlikely to have detrimental effects on growth, efficiency, temperament, or carcass characteristics of Brahman cattle; however, some effects evident for CAPN1 status indicate the need for further production studies on effects of these markers. Overall, the findings of the present study indicate that calpain-system gene markers are suitable for use in marker-assisted selection to improve meat tenderness in Brahman cattle without negative effects on other production and carcass characteristics.

Production and processing studies on calpain-system gene markers for beef tenderness: Consumer assessments of eating quality1

“…Consumers also rated the steaks from cattle with these favorable alleles more highly for juiciness, fl avor, and overall liking, leading to increased MQ4 scores. Except for a possible reduction in BW at slaughter for cattle with 2 copies of CAPN1-4751, this improvement appears to have been achieved without any adverse effect on growth, temperament, effi ciency, or carcass characteristics (Cafe et al, 2010a).…”

“…There are reports in the literature that muscles age at different rates, primarily because of varying calpastatin amounts (Koohmaraie and Geesink, 2006). Consequently, the favorable CAST allele, which de- Cafe et al, 2010a), this was accompanied by a reduction in perceived tenderness, juiciness, fl avor, overall liking, and MQ4 scores for striploin and rump steaks. The reductions in tenderness ranged from 8.2 units for Achilleshung striploin, 5.6 units for tenderstretched striploin, and 4.4 and 2.1 units for rump and oyster blade steaks, respectively.…”

“…The 4 markers were SNP within genes controlling the calpain-proteolytic system, specifi cally calpastatin (CAST; Barendse, 2002), calpain 3 (CAPN3; Barendse et al, 2008), and μ-calpain 1 (CAPN1-4751 and CAPN1-316; White et al, 2005 andPage et al, 2002, respectively). The frequency of alleles in the sampled Brahman herds was reported by Cafe et al (2010a).…”

“…The experiments were designed to assess the effects of calpain-system gene markers for tenderness on production, carcass, and beef quality characteristics of Brahman and Angus cattle, and interactions of the calpain-system gene markers with production and processing factors (Cafe et al, 2010a(Cafe et al, ,b , 2011a.…”

Molecular value predictions: Associations with beef quality, carcass, production, behavior, and efficiency phenotypes in Brahman cattle1

“…This hypothesis was tested using data from 2 previously published experiments (Cafe et al, 2010a(Cafe et al, , 2010bRobinson et al, 2012) designed to examine tenderness gene markers and their interactions with production and processing factors in Bos indicus (Brahman) cattle.…”