The GENOTEND chip: a new tool to analyse gene expression in muscles of beef cattle for beef quality prediction

BMC Veterinary Research

Table 4 Genes belonging to the energy and fat metabolism family whose expression levels were the most correlated with initial or overall tenderness scores in the reference group (young bulls slaughtered year 1)

				Correlation with initial tenderness		Correlation with overall tenderness
	Animal type	Year	Number of animals	Person coefficient	Spearman coefficient	Person coefficient	Spearman coefficient
*FABP4*	young bulls	year 1	25	0.42	0.31	0.41	0.39
*PPARG*	young bulls	year 1	25	0.59	0.48	0.52	0.46
*DGAT2*	young bulls	year 1	25	0.61	0.51	0.57	0.56
*FASN*	young bulls	year 1	25	0.61	0.56	0.59	0.52
*HADHB*	young bulls	year 1	25	0.44	0.49	0.47	0.46

Among the 150 genes belonging to the energy and fat metabolism family with probes on the GENOTEND chip, five genes were identified with the highest correlation coefficients with tenderness scores (they were the most associated with tenderness through the principal component analysis). Individual correlation coefficients (Pearson coefficient and Spearman coefficient) are indicated for each gene. Standard errors on the estimates of Pearson coefficients are between 0.17 and 0.19. Multiple regression analyses were performed with the combination of these 5 genes for young bulls slaughtered year 1. All together, these 5 genes explained up to 66-71% of the total variability in tenderness in the reference group.

ISSN: 1746-6148