The FABP4 gene polymorphism is associated with meat.pdf

Czech J. Anim. Sci., 56, 2011 (1): 1–6 Original Paper For decades, consumers have considered tender- ness as the most important meat quality attribute (Ouali et al., 2006; Erkens et al., 2009). To increase meat tenderness by traditional selective breeding is a difficult task, since meat quality is controlled by polygenes (Bendixen, 2005). However, the marker- assisted selection based on investigating the as- sociations of candidate gene polymorphism and traits has advantages for selection of meat quality traits (Wimmers et al., 2005). The intramuscular fat content (IMF) or marbling improves meat tender- ness by reducing bulk density and decreasing the strength of the connective tissue (Savell and Cross, 1988), and has beneficial effects on the taste quality and juiciness (Stupka et al., 2008). Therefore the genes involved in fatty acid metabolism are usually considered as potential candidate genes for meat tenderness. Fatty acid binding proteins play an important role in the regulation of lipid and glucose homeostasis by interaction with peroxisome proliferator acti- vated receptors (PPARs) (Adida and Spener, 2006). Specifically, the fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) fatty acid complex activates the peroxisome prolif- erator-activated receptor-γ (PPAR-γ) isoform, which in turn regulates transcription of FABP4 (Damcott et al., 2004). FABP4 was proposed as a potential candi- date gene for obesity as it was located within a quan- titative trait locus (QTL) region for serum leptin levels in mice (Ogino et al., 2003). In addition, FABP4 protein content could be a marker of longissimus thoracis muscle (LT) IMF content accretion in pigs (Gerbens et al., 2001; Damon et al., 2006; Mercadé et al., 2006). Obviously, FABP4 has become a strong candidate gene for fat metabolism. However, the ef- fect of FABP4 on fat deposition and meat quality traits in sheep has not been reported yet. Here, we cloned the cDNA of FABP4 gene and ap- plied the polymera