EQTL Analysis and Association of MYF6 mRNA Expression with Meat Quality Traits in Pigs

Abstract

Summary The aim of this research was to measure mRNA expression of porcine MYF6 (myogenic factor 6, also known in the medical literature as herculin and myogenic regulatory factor 4, MRF4) and to perform association study with meat quality traits as well as to unravel the transcriptional regulation of this gene by expression QTL (eQTL) study. For this purpose, Duroc × Pietrain F2 resource population (DuPi; n = 313) were used for association and eQTL study. The mRNA levels in Longissimus dorsi muscle tissue of MYF6 gene were evaluated by using qRT-PCR to identify association between gene expression and meat quality traits as well as to analyse eQTL. The mRNA expression of MYF6 associated with conductivity24L (P<0.01) and pH24L (P<0.1). Expression of MYF6 gene was higher in animals with high pH and conductivity of muscle. Linkage analysis using GridQTL revealed 4 trans-regulated eQTL on four porcine autosomes. Significant eQTL [P<0.01, CW (chromosome-wide)] were found for MYF6 on SSC2. A suggestive eQTL (P<0.05, CW) was identified on SSC8. These results revealed that gene expression of MYF6 associated with the meat quality traits and this gene could be potential functional candidate gene for meat quality traits in pigs. However, the analysis of eQTL also suggested that additional genes encoding for transcription factors (TF) could be considered, via fine-mapping underlying the eQTL peaks, in order to understand interaction among these genes.