Genetic effect of Myf5 gene in rabbit meat quality traits

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the polymorphism in the Myf5 gene on meat quality traits in the Ira and Tianfu Black rabbit breeds using polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing. A total of six SNPs and four haplotypes were found in Ira rabbits and only two SNPs were found in Tianfu Black rabbits. The two rabbit breeds had intermediate levels of genetic diversity according to their polymorphic information content values. The SNP association analysis in Ira indicated that SNP1-6 had a significant association with redness, yellowness and intramuscular fat values in the biceps femoris muscle, and also a significantly effect on redness in the longissimus dorsi muscle. The haplotype association analysis indicated that some haplotypes could be selected to get higher or lower meat redness, yellowness and intramuscular fat content in longissimus dorsi in Ira rabbits. Several SNPs and haplotypes of Myf5 identified here could be considered as molecular markers to improve the meat quality of Ira and Tianfu Black rabbits.