Author(s)

Bin Tong¹, Youji Muramatsu², Narumi Fuke¹, Yui Himizu¹, Hiroyuki Katou³, Takeshi Ohta⁴, Hiroyuki Kose⁵, Takahisa Yamada^1*

¹Laboratory of Animal Genetics, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Niigata University, Niigata, Japan.
²Department of Nutritional Sciences for Well-Being, Faculty of Health Sciences for Welfare, Kansai University of Welfare Sciences, Osaka, Japan.
³Niigata Prefectural Headquarters, National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Association, Niigata, Japan.
⁴Central Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Japan Tobacco, Inc., Osaka, Japan.
⁵Department of Life Science, Division of Natural Sciences, International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan.

Growth performance as well as marbling is the main breeding objectives in Japanese Black cattle, the major beef breed in Japan. A previous study has identified the c.1326T>G single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the NCAPG (non-SMC condensin I complex, subunit G) gene that leads to the amino acid change p.Ile442Met in the NCAPG protein, which is a candidate causative variation for a bovine carcass weight (CWT) quantitative trait locus (QTL). In this study, we first confirmed the association of the c.1326T>G SNP with the growth-related traits, CWT, rib eye area (REA) and rib thickness (RT), and showed significant effect of the SNP genotypes on the marbling trait, beef marbling score (BMS), in the Japanese Black beef cattle population of the Niigata prefecture, with the G allele being associated with a favorable phenotype of these traits. Thus, we concluded that the c.1326T>G SNP is useful for effective marker-assisted selection to increase meat quality and meat productivity in Japanese Black beef cattle of the Niigata prefecture. Furthermore the frequency of the favorable G allele of the c.1326T>G SNP in the Niigata prefecture population was significantly lower than the frequency of this allele in Japanese Black cattle population of the Kagoshima prefecture. However, no statistically significant difference was detected between the allele frequencies estimated by maternal alleles in the half-sib progeny steers in the Niigata prefecture population and obtained in Japanese Black cattle population of the Kagoshima prefecture.

Allele Frequency, Growth-Related Traits, Japanese Black Breed, NCAPG, Single Nucleotide Polymorphism

Tong, B. , Muramatsu, Y. , Fuke, N. , Himizu, Y. , Katou, H. , Ohta, T. , Kose, H. and Yamada, T. (2016) Allele Frequency Distribution of the NCAPG c.1326T>G SNP Associated with Growth-Related Traits in Niigata Population of Japanese Black Beef Cattle. Open Journal of Animal Sciences, 6, 202-206. doi: 10.4236/ojas.2016.63026.