The impact of diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase 1 gene polymorphism on carcass traits in cattle

The aim of this study was to identify the K232A polymorphism in gene encoding diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) and to evaluate its effect on carcass traits in population of Slovak Pinzgau steers. The genotyping data were obtained for totally 56 animals by using PCR-RFLP method. The A allele (0.93) was more frequent in analysed population than K allele (0.07). Even if the expected and observed heterozygosity indicated prevalence of homozygotes, the significant effect of inbreeding on population structure wasn't found ([F.sub.IS]=-0.08). The decline in effective allele number ([N.sub.a]=1.15) as well as polymorphic information content (PIC=0.12) pointed out to significant decrease of locus effectiveness in population. The effect of DGAT1 gene polymorphism on carcass traits was tested by using the GLM procedure adopted in SAS 9.3. In association analysis the proportion of muscle, fat, bone, and drip loss within the beef three-rib section were evaluated. However, the statistical analysis showed only non-significant impact of DGAT1 gene polymorphism on selected production traits in analysed population.