摘要
Background: Intramuscular fat(IMF) content is a relevant trait for high-quality meat products such as dry-cured ham,but increasing IMF has the undesirable correlated effect of decreasing lean growth.Thus,there is a need to find selection criteria for IMF independent from lean growth.In pigs,the proportion of linoleic(C18:2) and arachidonic(C20:4) acids decline with fat deposition and therefore they can be considered as indicators of fatness.The aim of this research was to estimate the genetic variation for C18:2 and C20:4 in IMF and their genetic correlations with IMF and lean growth traits,with the objective to assess their potential as specific biomarkers of IMF.The analysis was conducted using a full-pedigreed Duroc resource line with 91,448 records of body weight and backfat thickness(BT) at 180 days of age and 1371 records of fatty acid composition in the muscle gluteus medius.Results: The heritability estimates for C18:2 and C20:4 in IMF,whether expressed in absolute(mg/g of muscle) or in relative(mg/g of fatty acid) terms,as well as for their ratio(C20:4/C18:2),were high(> 0.40),revealing that the C18:2 to C20:4 pathway is subjected to substantial genetic influence.Litter effects were not negligible,with values ranging from8% to 15% of the phenotypic variance.The genetic correlations of C18:2 and C20:4 with IMF and BT were negative(-0.75 to-0.66,for IMF,and-0.64 to-0.36,for BT),if expressed in relative values,but almost null(-0.04 to 0.07),if expressed in absolute values,except for C18:2 with IMF,which was highly positive(0.88).The ratio of C20:4 to C18:2 also displayed a stronger genetic correlation with IMF(-0.59) than with BT(-0.10).Conclusions: The amount of C18:2 in muscle can be used as an IMF-specific biomarker.Selection for the absolute amount of C18:2 is expected to deliver a similar response outcome as selection for IMF at restrained BT.Further genetic analysis of the C18:2 metabolic pathway may provide new insights into differential fat deposition among adipose tissues and on candidate genes for
Background: Intramuscular fat(IMF) content is a relevant trait for high-quality meat products such as dry-cured ham, but increasing IMF has the undesirable correlated effect of decreasing lean growth. Thus, there is a need to find selection criteria for IMF independent from lean growth. In pigs, the proportion of linoleic(C18:2) and arachidonic(C20:4) acids decline with fat deposition and therefore they can be considered as indicators of fatness.The aim of this research was to estimate the genetic variation for C18:2 and C20:4 in IMF and their genetic correlations with IMF and lean growth traits, with the objective to assess their potential as specific biomarkers of IMF. The analysis was conducted using a full-pedigreed Duroc resource line with 91,448 records of body weight and backfat thickness(BT) at 180 days of age and 1371 records of fatty acid composition in the muscle gluteus medius.Results: The heritability estimates for C18:2 and C20:4 in IMF, whether expressed in absolute(mg/g of muscle) or in relative(mg/g of fatty acid) terms, as well as for their ratio(C20:4/C18:2), were high(> 0.40), revealing that the C18:2 to C20:4 pathway is subjected to substantial genetic influence. Litter effects were not negligible, with values ranging from8% to 15% of the phenotypic variance. The genetic correlations of C18:2 and C20:4 with IMF and BT were negative(-0.75 to-0.66, for IMF, and-0.64 to-0.36, for BT), if expressed in relative values, but almost null(-0.04 to 0.07), if expressed in absolute values, except for C18:2 with IMF, which was highly positive(0.88). The ratio of C20:4 to C18:2 also displayed a stronger genetic correlation with IMF(-0.59) than with BT(-0.10).Conclusions: The amount of C18:2 in muscle can be used as an IMF-specific biomarker. Selection for the absolute amount of C18:2 is expected to deliver a similar response outcome as selection for IMF at restrained BT. Further genetic analysis of the C18:2 metabolic pathway may provide new insights into differential fat deposition among adipose tissues a
基金
funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Union Regional Development Funds(AGL2015–65846-R grant)
partially supported by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology(IDI-20150115 project)
SG is recipient of a PhD scholarship from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation(BES-2014-FPU13/04975)
