Abstract
Carcass and meat quality are two important attributes for the beef industry because they drive profitability and consumer demand. These traits are of even greater importance in crossbred cattle used in subtropical and tropical regions for their superior adaptability because they tend to underperform compared to their purebred counterparts. Many of these traits are challenging and expensive to measure and unavailable until late in life or after the animal is harvested, hence unrealistic to improve through traditional phenotypic selection, but perfect candidates for genomic selection. Before genomic selection can be implemented in crossbred populations, it is important to explore if pleiotropic effects exist between carcass and meat quality traits. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify genomic regions with pleiotropic effects on carcass and meat quality traits in a multibreed Angus–Brahman population that included purebred and crossbred animals. Data included phenotypes for 10 carcass and meat quality traits from 2,384 steers, of which 1,038 were genotyped with the GGP Bovine F-250. Single-trait genome-wide association studies were first used to investigate the relevance of direct additive genetic effects on each carcass, sensory and visual meat quality traits. A second analysis for each trait included all other phenotypes as covariates to correct for direct causal effects from identified genomic regions with pure direct effects on the trait under analysis. Five genomic windows on chromosomes BTA5, BTA7, BTA18, and BTA29 explained more than 1% of additive genetic variance of two or more traits. Moreover, three suggestive pleiotropic regions were identified on BTA10 and BTA19. The 317 genes uncovered in pleiotropic regions included anchoring and cytoskeletal proteins, key players in cell growth, muscle development, lipid metabolism and fat deposition, and important factors in muscle proteolysis. A functional analysis of these genes revealed GO terms directly related to carcass quality, meat quality, and tenderness in beef cattle, including calcium-related processes, cell signaling, and modulation of cell–cell adhesion. These results contribute with novel information about the complex genetic architecture and pleiotropic effects of carcass and meat quality traits in crossbred beef cattle.
Highlights
A common strategy to improve beef production in tropical and subtropical areas is crossbreeding
Ribeye area and marbling score are economically important for producers, marbling due to its high impact on carcass value set by packers
This indicates that marbling scores from Angus x Brahman crossbreds are similar to the national beef industry average and include superior carcasses
Summary
A common strategy to improve beef production in tropical and subtropical areas is crossbreeding. The combination of high environmental temperature and humidity, greater incidence of parasite-transmitted diseases, and nutritionally lower quality pastures negatively impacts the growth rate and reproductive performance of Taurine (Bos taurus taurus) beef cattle breeds (Burrow, 2015). To attenuate these impacts, producers in tropical and subtropical areas use crossbreeding between European Taurine and Zebu (Bos taurus indicus) breeds as a strategy to enhance beef production (Lamy et al, 2012). In subtropical areas of the United States, Angus × Brahman crosses are preferred for beef production over other Zebu–Taurine combinations (Chase et al, 2004)
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