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ARS Home » Plains Area » Clay Center, Nebraska » U.S. Meat Animal Research Center » Genetics and Animal Breeding » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #390991
Research Project: Developing a Systems Biology Approach to Enhance Efficiency and Sustainability of Beef and Lamb Production

Location: Genetics and Animal Breeding

Title: Mitochondrial DNA copy number as a potential genetic indicator of growth and carcass traits in beef cattle

Author
item SANGLARD, LETICIA - UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
item Kuehn, Larry
item Snelling, Warren
item SPANGLER, MATTHEW - UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA

Submitted to: World Congress of Genetics Applied in Livestock Production
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/2/2023
Publication Date: 7/3/2023
Citation: Sanglard, L.P., Kuehn, L.A., Snelling, W.M., Spangler, M.L. 2023. Mitochondrial DNA copy number as a potential genetic indicator of growth and carcass traits in beef cattle [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the World Congress of Genetics Applied in Livestock Production. Session 40. p. 47.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA CN) was investigated as a potential genetic indicator of growth and carcass traits in a composite beef cattle population. Blood or leucocyte samples were subjected to low-pass whole-genome sequencing that resulted in nuclear DNA (nuDNA) and mtDNA sequence reads for 2,371 animals. Mitochondrial DNA CN was estimated as the ratio of mtDNA to nuDNA coverages. Growth and carcass traits were available for up 60,989 individuals. Genetic parameters were estimated from a bivariate animal model based on pedigree. Estimates of heritability of mtDNA CN was 0.11'0.07. Genetic correlation estimates of mtDNA CN were -0.30'0.16 with birth weight, -0.31'0.16 with age-adjusted weaning weight, -0.15'0.14 with post-weaning gain, -0.11'0.13 with slaughter weight, -0.14'0.13 with carcass weight, -0.07'0.14 with carcass backfat, 0.14'0.14 with carcass marbling, and -0.06'0.14 with carcass ribeye area. Thus, mtDNA CN is heritable and lowly correlated with growth and carcass traits.