Allele- and parent-of-origin-specific effects on expression of the KCNJ11 gene: A candidate for meat tenderness in cattle

Abstract

ABSTRACT. In contrast to the Mendelian inheritance model, parental alleles can contribute unequally to gene expression, which may result in phenotypic variance among individuals and bias in the predicted additive effect of molecular markers associated with production traits. Given the need to understand the effects of allelic variation and parentof-origin effects on the expression of genes with a commercial interest in cattle, we analyzed the expression of KCNJ11 (potassium inwardly rectifying channel, subfamily J, member 11), which was previously described as a functional candidate gene for meat tenderness. Allelespecific and parent-of-origin-dependent expression of this gene were assessed in bovine muscle using the rs379610823 single nucleotide polymorphism as a reference. Biallelic expression was observed; however, the T allele was expressed at significantly higher levels than the C allele. Furthermore, increased expression of KCNJ11 was found in animals harboring the maternal T allele. This study is the first to describe the differential allelic expression of bovine KCNJ11. Our findings are important for understanding the mechanisms that underlie the pattern of KCNJ11 expression and its potential impact on the phenotypic variation of meat tenderness in Nelore beef cattle. This reinforces the need for further investigation of allelic-and parent-oforigin expression deviation in genetic markers eligible for the selection of target traits.

Genotypic and allelic frequencies of gene polymorphisms associated with meat tenderness in Nellore beef cattle

“…Those authors observed a desirable degree of meat tenderness in young Nellore animals after just 7 days of maturation. Using molecular markers, de Souza et al (2016) observed allele and parent-of-origin-specific effects on the expression of candidate genes for meat tenderness in Nellore beef cattle.…”