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NEW BEEF QUALITY GENE MARKER IDENTIFIED
The discovery by CSIRO Livestock Industries' scientist, Dr Bill Barendse, and his team in Brisbane, is the most recent in the team's long line of gene marker discoveries for marbling and tenderness which have been subsequently commercialised by an Australian company, Genetic Solutions trading as GeneSTAR marbling and GeneSTAR tenderness. This research was conducted in the Cooperative Research Centre for Cattle and Beef Quality with support from Meat and Livestock Australia. Marbling, the fat inside the muscle of cattle, is a valuable trait in lucrative markets such as Japan and the USA, as it improves the eating quality of the meat, and is the most important single determinant of price. Dr Barendse says the new gene marker encodes a receptor which is responsive to circulating hormones including thyroid hormone, the basis for the current GeneSTAR marbling test. While the role of this new receptor in marbling is still being studied, patent protection has been sought for the use of genetic variation of this gene to predict marbling potential. When the new gene marker is commercialised it will, in combination with current and future marbling markers, increase the chances of identifying animals with a high genetic potential for the trait. "Differences in marbling are affected by many genes and so far we have identified two of them," Dr Barendse says. "We aim to continue identifying gene markers for marbling as well as tenderness thereby increasing the chances of identifying animals carrying the genes of interest." The team is also aiming to identify gene markers for parasite resistance and net feed efficiency which could be delivered as an addition to the other tests.
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