The future of DNA technologies for improving beef quality: marbling, fatty acid composition and tenderness

Abstract

DNA genotyping with high-density panels and genome sequencing provide new opportunities for genetic improvement of beef quality traits by genomic selection (GS). Adoption of GS in the beef industry is lower than that in the dairy industry. Lower accuracy of genomic predictions is one of the reasons, which is associated with the difficulties to build large training populations. Nevertheless, current accuracies for meat quality traits are promising, indicating that there is potential to include then in beef breeding programmes, although more studies are needed. The information from training populations is a valuable resource for genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Current DNA technologies enable a better understanding of the genetic basis of traits of interest. Larger training populations are associated with greater statistical power for GWAS and improved genomic predictions accuracies.