Relationships between single nucleotide polymorphism markers and meat quality traits of duroc breeding stocks in Korea

This study was conducted to determine the relationships of five intragenic single nucleotide polymorphism(SNP)markers (protein kinase adenosine monophosphate-Activated γ3 subunit[PRKAG3],fatty acid synthase [FASN],calpastatin [CAST],high mobility group AT-hook 1 [HMGA1], and melanocortin-4 receptor [MC4R]) and meat qualitytraits of Duroc breeding stocks in Korea. A total of 200 purebred Duroc gilts from8 sires and 40 dams at 4 pig breeding farms from 2010 to 2011 reaching market weight (110kg)were slaughtered and their carcasses were chilled overnight. Longissimus dorsimuscles were removed from the carcass after 24 h of slaughter and used to determinepork properties including carcass weight, backfat thickness, moisture, intramuscular fat, pH24h, shear force, redness, texture, and fatty acid composition.The PRKAG3,FASN,CAST,and MC4R gene SNPswere significantly associated with the meat quality traits (p<0.003). The meats of PRKAG3 (A 0.024/G 0.976) AA genotype had higher pH, redness and texture than those fromPRKAG3GGgenotype.Meats of FASN (C 0.301/A 0.699) AA genotype had higher backfat thickness, texture, stearic acid, oleic acid and polyunsaturated fatty acidthan FASN CC genotype.While the carcasses of CAST(A 0.373/G 0.627) AA genotype had thicker backfat, and lower shear force, palmitoleic acid and oleic acid content, they had higher stearic acid content than those from the CASTGG genotype. The MC4R(G 0.208/A 0.792) AA genotype were involved in increasingbackfat thickness, carcass weight, moisture and saturated fatty acidcontent,anddecreasing unsaturated fatty acidcontentin Duroc meat. These results indicated that the five SNP markers tested can be a help to select Duroc breed to improve carcass and meat qualityproperties in crossbred pigs.