Association of the polymorphism in GYS1 and ACOX1 genes with meat quality traits in pigs

Phenotypic information about several pig meat quality traits on 334 Large White × Meishan F2 pigs was collected. Effects of the association of the FokI variants in the seventh intron of the skeletal muscle glycogen synthase (GYS1) gene and the PstI variants in the ninth intron of the palmitoyl acyl-CoA oxidase 1 (ACOX1) gene on the meat quality traits were examined on all pigs. The FokI variants of the GYS1 gene showed significant effects on pH of m. semipinalis capitis (P < 0.05). Linkage analysis indicated that the peak of the quantitative trait loci (QTL) curve was located around this marker for pH, but it did not reach significance (P > 0.05). The results may be due to several reasons such as linkage disequilibrium to the causal mutations, the limited number of animals or balance of another QTL or marker with negative effects. Significant effects of PstI variants of ACOX1 gene were also found on meat colour value and meat marbling score of both m. longissimus dorsi and m. biceps femoris (P < 0.05). Dominant effects for the affected traits at those two loci were significant except for meat marbling score of m. biceps femoris (P < 0.05). The results of this study give us some evidence for the potential of those dominant markers used in the marker-assisted selection of crossbreeding of the Large White pig sire lines and Meishan-derived synthetic dam lines.