Meat tenderness is considered the most important trait contributing to beef quality, level of consumer satisfaction, willingness to pay premium prices and industry profit. Genomic selection method would be helpful for genetic improvement of traits with low heritability and that are difficult to measure. The identification of core genes can aid genomic selection for complex traits with low heritability that are difficult to measure. We performed statistical analysis of associations between longissimus dorsi muscle tenderness and gene expression in 20 Hanwoo cattle, using Warner–Bratzler shear force and RNAseq data, respectively. We found a total of 166 core genes, from which six (ASAP1, CAPN5, ELN, SUMF2, TTC8 and MGAT4A) were regulated by 16 cis-expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) SNPs. Notably, we found that a cis-eQTL SNP of the ELN gene contained an MFZ-1 binding site in its putative promoter region. These findings provide useful information for genomic prediction of beef tenderness in Hanwoo cattle.

中文翻译：

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鉴定与韩牛（韩牛）肉嫩度相关的潜在生物标志物：表达数量性状位点分析

肉嫩度被认为是影响牛肉质量、消费者满意度、支付高价意愿和行业利润的最重要特征。基因组选择方法将有助于遗传力低且难以测量的性状的遗传改良。核心基因的鉴定可以帮助基因组选择难以测量的低遗传力的复杂性状。我们分别使用 Warner-Bratzler 剪切力和 RNAseq 数据对 20 头 Hanwoo 牛的背最长肌压痛与基因表达之间的关联进行了统计分析。我们总共发现了166个核心基因，其中6个（ASAP1、CAPN5、ELN、SUMF2、TTC8和MGAT4A）受到16个顺式表达数量性状位点（eQTL）SNP的调节。值得注意的是，我们发现ELN基因的 cis-eQTL SNP在其推定的启动子区域包含 MFZ-1 结合位点。这些发现为韩宇牛牛肉嫩度的基因组预测提供了有用的信息。