Authors : Yao-Dong Hu, Zeng-Rong Zhang and Qing Zhu
Abstract: Calpastatin (CAST) is a naturally occurring protein that inhibits normal tenderization of meat as it ages postmortem. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of CAST gene polymorphisms on chicken carcass traits. The researchers screened CAST Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) in 359 meat type quality chickens from 5 commercial pure lines (S01, S02, S03, S05 and D99; developed from Chinese local breeds), 3 crossbreeds (S01xS05, S01xS10 and S01xD99) and 4 native breeds from Guangdong (Fengkai Xinghua chicken, Huiyang Huxu chicken, Qingyuan Ma chicken) and Guangxi province (Xiayan chicken) in China. Three SNPs (36127T>C, 37752A>T and 37868G>A) were detected by Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism (SSCP) method and DNA sequencing. The linkage disequilibrium analyze found that only 37868G>A SNP in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium yet one SNP can not compose haplotype, therefore these three SNPs should be analyzed separately rather than as haplotypes. Association analysis showed that the 37752A>T genotypes were significantly associated with Body Weight (BW), Carcass Weight (CW), Breast Muscle Weight (BMW) and Leg Muscle Weight (LMW). The results suggest that CAST SNP is significantly associated with carcass trait in the twelve studied populations and could be useful in selection for changing meat quality in chicken. Further investigations on more chicken populations with larger sample size are needed to confirm this conclusion.
Yao-Dong Hu, Zeng-Rong Zhang and Qing Zhu, 2011. Identification and Association of the Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Calpastatin (CAST) Gene with Carcass Traits in Chicken. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 10: 2968-2974.