A missense mutant of the PPAR-γ gene associated with carcass and meat quality traits in Chinese cattle breeds.

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPAR-γ) is a key molecule in adipocyte differentitation; it transactivates multiple target genes in lipid metabolic pathways. Using PCR-SSCP and DNA sequencing, we evaluated a potential association of an SNP (72472 G﹥T in exon7) of the bovine PPAR-γ gene with carcass and meat quality traits in 660 individuals from five Chinese indigenous cattle breeds, Qinchuan (QC), Luxi (LX), Nanyang (NY), Jiaxian (JX), and Xianan (XN). This 72472 G﹥T mutation identified a missense mutation, Q448H. Two alleles were named C and D. Allele frequencies of PPAR-γ-C/D in the five breeds were 0.7815/0.2185, 0.9/0.1, 0.7442/0.2558, 0.7051/0.2949, and 0.8333/0.1667 for QC, NY, JX, LX, and XN, respectively. Except for the XN breed, all breeds were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium at this locus. The polymorphism information content was low for NY and XN (0.16 and 0.24, respectively), while it was moderately high for QC, JX, and LX (0.28, 0.31 and 0.33, respectively). Correlation analysis showed significant association of this missense mutation with carcass length, backfat thickness and water holding capacity in the QC breed. Animals with the genotype CD had significantly greater carcass length than those with genotypes CC and DD, while animals with genotype CC had significantly greater backfat thickness than those with genotypes CD and DD. Animals with genotype CC had lower water holding capacity than those with the genotypes CD and DD. In conclusion, this locus is a candidate for a major quantitative trait locus affecting production traits and could be used for beef breeding selection.