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Here, we newly provided the parameters for estimating meat quality in live pigs using the muscle biopsy. The biopsied longissimus thoracis muscle was used to identify the muscle fibre characteristics (MFCs). Of the various MFCs in biopsied muscle, muscle fibre number (MFN) composition showed the greatest correlation with the MFCs in postmortem muscle (P < 0.001). Moreover, the pigs cluster groups, based on the biopsied MFN composition, demonstrated statistically significant differences in meat quality traits such as muscle pH, drip loss, and meat colour (P < 0.05). Therefore, we conclude that the MFN parameters in live pigs are closely related to the postmortem muscle metabolic rate and ultimately with the quality of meat. We suggest that the higher type I and lower type IIB MFN in biopsied muscle will result in better pork quality. • MFC were measured in the biopsied longissimus thoracis muscle. • MFN compositions measured in live and postmortem were highly correlated. • Clusters based on biopsied MFN composition were associated with meat quality. • MFN of biopsied muscle could be used to estimate ultimate meat quality in live animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The heterogeneity of myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoforms is closely related to muscle fiber characteristics, and meat quality in pigs. The fast MyHC gene cluster on porcine chromosome 12 contains MYH2 , MYH1 , and MYH4 , which encode three fast MyHC isoforms expressed in adult skeletal muscle. Here, we identified four intergenic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the gene cluster. Of these, SNP1 and SNP2, which were located near MYH2 , were genotyped in 199 Berkshire pigs. SNP1 were significantly associated with the total fiber number ( P = 0.046) and intramuscular fat contents ( P = 0.041), and SNP2 had significant effects on type I fiber number/area compositions ( P = 0.039 and P = 0.041, respectively), water holding capacity (drip loss, P = 0.045; cooking loss, P = 0.001), and meat color ( P = 0.003). Taken together, our results suggest that the intergenic SNPs near MYH2 can affect muscle fiber formation and meat quality by modifying the regulatory elements of this gene cluster in pigs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hanwoo is an indigenous Korean beef cattle breed, and it shared an ancestor with Yanbian cattle that are found in the Northeast provinces in China until the last century. During recent decades, those cattle breeds experienced different selection pressures. Here, we present genome-wide copy number variations (CNVs) by comparing Hanwoo and Yanbian cattle sequencing data. We used ~ 3.12 and ~ 3.07 billion sequence reads from Hanwoo and Yanbian cattle, respectively. A total of 901 putative CNV regions (CNVRs) were identified throughout the genome, representing 5,513,340 bp. This is a smaller number than has been reported in previous studies, indicating that Hanwoo are genetically close to Yanbian cattle. Of the CNVRs, 53.2% and 46.8% were found to be gains and losses in Hanwoo. Potential functional roles of each CNVR were assessed by annotating all CNVRs and gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis. We found that 278 CNVRs overlapped with cattle gene-sets (genic-CNVRs) that could be promising candidates to account for economically important traits in cattle. The enrichment analysis indicated that genes were significantly over-represented in GO terms, including developmental process, multicellular organismal process, reproduction, and response to stimulus. These results provide a valuable genomic resource for determining how CNVs are associated with cattle traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]