• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.480-485
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• 2018

In this study, to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with meat quality in Berkshire pigs, we performed RNA sequencing. A non-synonymous SNP (nsSNP) in the Complement component 9 (C9) gene was identified, and the association between meat quality traits and the C9 genotype was analyzed. The nsSNP in the C9 gene was located at c.942 G>T. In the dominant model, significant associations were observed between the SNP and meat quality traits such as CIE L, collagen content, moisture level, and $pH_{24h}$, whereas in the co-dominant model, significant associations were observed between the SNP and CIE L, collagen content, and protein content. In the recessive model, a significant association between the C9 genotype and the collagen content was observed. In addition, we identified the significant relationship between the C9 genotype and meat quality according to sex. These results indicate that the C9 SNP can be used as a genetic marker for improving pork quality.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.89-97
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• 2011

In this study, the efficiency of microsatellite (MS) markers for pork quality was examined and further, their suitability to domestic pork industry also was verified, by measuring meat quality parameters of Berkshire breeds. A total of 323 pigs of Berkshire breeds were slaughtered and subjected to meat quality evaluation. In addition, the genomic DNAs from blood samples of slaughtered pigs were used for genotyping analysis of 50 MS markers. The results revealed that Berkshire breeds have excellent meat quality, compared with the popular domestic breeds such as Duroc, Yorkshire, and Landrace. Noticeably, the Berkshire breeds exhibited a significant post-mortem pH24hr ($5.88{\pm}0.01$) and fat content ($2.878{\pm}0.06$). Through the linkage analysis between MS markers, 14 MS markers showed significant association with meat quality traits (p<0.05). Maximum significant differences of 0.55 pH24hr value and 2.04% fat content were observed between the highest and lowest allele populations. If these 14 MS markers are applied to the pork quality diagnosis kit, the synergistic effect can be expected in meat quality parameters such as meat color, fat content, pH 24 hr, cooking loss, drip loss and water-holding capacity.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.10
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• pp.1357-1363
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• 2012

Pigs may need to be exploited as xenotransplantation donors due to the shortage of human organs, tissues and cells. Porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) are a significant obstacle to xenotransplantation because they can infect human cells in vitro and have the potential for transmission of unexpected pathogens to humans. In this research, 101 pigs, including four commercial breeds (23 Berkshire, 13 Duroc, 22 Landrace and 14 Yorkshire pigs), one native breed (19 Korean native pigs) and one miniature breed (10 NIH miniature pigs) were used to investigate insertional variations for 11 PERV loci (three PERV-A, six PERV-B and two PERV-C). Over 60% of the pigs harbored one PERV-A (907F8) integration and five PERV-B (B3-3G, B3-7G, 742H1, 1155D9 and 465D1) integrations. However, two PERV-A loci (A1-6C and 1347C1) and one PERV-B locus (B3-7F) were absent in Duroc pigs. Moreover, two PERV-C loci (C2-6C and C4-2G) only existed in Korean native pigs and NIH miniature pigs. The results suggest that PERV insertional variations differ among pig breeds as well as among individuals within a breed. Also, the results presented here can be used for the selection of animals that do not have specific PERV integration for xenotransplantation research.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.867-871
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• 2010

Objective of this study was to develop a Korean Berkshire line produced using organized management techniques. A total of 448 pigs divided into five line groups were slaughtered and analyzed for their meat quality. $pH_{45}$ values were significantly higher in lines 1~4 (pH 6.08). However, $pH_{24}$ values were lower in line 1 (pH 5.69) and line 3 (pH 5.65) (p<0.05) than in the other lines. Moisture contents were significantly higher in line 5, and the intramuscular fat contents (3.07%) were significantly higher in the other four lines. Water holding capacity (WHC) was higher for line 3 (58.36%) while Warner-Bratzler shear force (WBS) values were significantly higher for line 4 (2.84 kg/$0.5inch^2$) than in the other lines (p<0.05). For meat color properties, L values (CIE L) were 51.59 for line 5, and this value was higher than the other lines. There were no significant differences in $a^*$ values and $b^*$ values among the five lines (p>0.05). Therefore, line 5 was selected as the growth type, whereas line 4 was selected as the Korean Berkshire line that produced pork significantly higher in pH and significantly lower in meat color (lightness), drip loss, and WBS.

• Journal of the Korean Society of International Agriculture
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.277-284
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• 2018

Meat quality has always been one of the most important factors that controls the choice of pork consumers and is of great interest in the pig industry. In this study, we identified a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the enoyl-CoA delta isomerase 2 (ECI2) gene in Berkshire pigs (n = 430) by analyzed the association between the SNP and meat quality traits. The non-synonymous SNP in the ECI2 gene is located at c.608 C > G and resulted in an amino acid change from threonine to serine. Significant associations between the SNP and meat quality traits, such as redness (CIE a), and the $pH_{24hr}$, were revealed in both the dominant and co-dominant models, whereas carcass weight, drip loss, and fat content and moisture content were significantly associated only with the dominant model. In barrow, the SNP was significantly associated with CIE a, drip loss, and $pH_{24hr}$, whereas in gilt, only a significant relationship with moisture content was observed. GG genotype pigs had a higher $pH_{24hr}$ and lower drip loss. Because $pH_{24hr}$ and drip loss are considered the most important meat quality traits, GG genotype pork is high-quality meat compared to that from other genotypes. In conclusion, the SNP in the ECI2 gene is significantly associated with several meat quality traits. These traits and could be as genetic markers in molecular breeding programs for improving meat quality.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.926-931
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• 2014

Pork from Jeju black pig (population J) and Berkshire (population B) has a unique market share in Korea because of their high meat quality. Due to the high demand of this pork, traceability of the pork to its origin is becoming an important part of the consumer demand. To examine the feasibility of such a system, we aim to provide basic genetic information of the two black pig populations and assess the possibility of genetically distinguishing between the two breeds. Muscle samples were collected from slaughter houses in Jeju Island and Namwon, Chonbuk province, Korea, for populations J and B, respectively. In total 800 Jeju black pigs and 351 Berkshires were genotyped at thirteen microsatellite (MS) markers. Analyses on the genetic diversity of the two populations were carried out in the programs MS toolkit and FSTAT. The population structure of the two breeds was determined by a Bayesian clustering method implemented in structure and by a phylogenetic analysis in Phylip. Population J exhibited higher mean number of alleles, expected heterozygosity and observed heterozygosity value, and polymorphism information content, compared to population B. The $F_{IS}$ values of population J and population B were 0.03 and -0.005, respectively, indicating that little or no inbreeding has occurred. In addition, genetic structure analysis revealed the possibility of gene flow from population B to population J. The expected probability of identify value of the 13 MS markers was $9.87{\times}10^{-14}$ in population J, $3.17{\times}10^{-9}$ in population B, and $1.03{\times}10^{-12}$ in the two populations. The results of this study are useful in distinguishing between the two black pig breeds and can be used as a foundation for further development of DNA markers.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.852-859
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• 2020

The muscle stem cells of domestic animals are of interest to researchers in the food and biotechnology industries for the production of cultured meat. For producing cultured meat, it is crucial for muscle stem cells to be efficiently isolated and stably maintained in vitro on a large scale. In the present study, we aimed to optimize the method for the enrichment of pig muscle stem cells using a magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) system. Pig muscle stem cells were collected from the biceps femoris muscles of 14 d-old pigs of three breeds [Landrace×Yorkshire×Duroc (LYD), Berkshire, and Korean native pigs] and cultured in skeletal muscle growth medium-2 (SkGM-2) supplemented with epidermal growth factor (EGF), dexamethasone, and a p38 inhibitor (SB203580). Approximately 30% of total cultured cells were nonmyogenic cells in the absence of purification in our system, as determined by immunostaining for cluster of differentiation 56 (CD56) and CD29, which are known markers of muscle stem cells. Interestingly, following MACS isolation using the CD29 antibody, the proportion of CD56⁺/CD29⁺ muscle stem cells was significantly increased (91.5±2.40%), and the proportion of CD56 single-positive nonmyogenic cells was dramatically decreased. Furthermore, we verified that this method worked well for purifying muscle stem cells in the three pig breeds. Accordingly, we found that CD29 is a valuable candidate among the various marker genes for the isolation of pig muscle stem cells and developed a simple sorting method based on a single antibody to this protein.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.1540-1547
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• 2014

The accuracy of genomic estimated breeding values (GEBV) was evaluated for sixteen meat quality traits in a Berkshire population (n = 1,191) that was collected from Dasan breeding farm, Namwon, Korea. The animals were genotyped with the Illumina porcine 62 K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) bead chips, in which a set of 36,605 SNPs were available after quality control tests. Two methods were applied to evaluate GEBV accuracies, i.e. genome based linear unbiased prediction method (GBLUP) and Bayes B, using ASREML 3.0 and Gensel 4.0 software, respectively. The traits composed different sets of training (both genotypes and phenotypes) and testing (genotypes only) data. Under the GBLUP model, the GEBV accuracies for the training data ranged from $0.42{\pm}0.08$ for collagen to $0.75{\pm}0.02$ for water holding capacity with an average of $0.65{\pm}0.04$ across all the traits. Under the Bayes B model, the GEBV accuracy ranged from $0.10{\pm}0.14$ for National Pork Producers Council (NPCC) marbling score to $0.76{\pm}0.04$ for drip loss, with an average of $0.49{\pm}0.10$. For the testing samples, the GEBV accuracy had an average of $0.46{\pm}0.10$ under the GBLUP model, ranging from $0.20{\pm}0.18$ for protein to $0.65{\pm}0.06$ for drip loss. Under the Bayes B model, the GEBV accuracy ranged from $0.04{\pm}0.09$ for NPCC marbling score to $0.72{\pm}0.05$ for drip loss with an average of $0.38{\pm}0.13$. The GEBV accuracy increased with the size of the training data and heritability. In general, the GEBV accuracies under the Bayes B model were lower than under the GBLUP model, especially when the training sample size was small. Our results suggest that a much greater training sample size is needed to get better GEBV accuracies for the testing samples.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.749-754
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• 2017

Objective: The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of farrowing month (FM), parity and sex on the growth performance of Berkshire swine raised in alternative production systems. Methods: A total of 40 farrowing records from 27 sows and 1,258 body weight (BW) records from 274 piglets collected over a two-year period were used for the analysis. The BWs were recorded at birth, weaning (28 d), 56, 84, 112, and 140 days. Any BW not recorded on schedule was recalculated to conform the days of age among corresponding BW records, using growth curves drawn with polynomial functions whose power was determined by the number of existing observations for each individual. Results: The mean parity (${\pm}$standard deviation) of the sows was $3.42{\pm}2.14$. The sows that farrowed in June had the lowest number of total born with an average of $6.25{\pm}2.22$ piglets per sow. However, the lowest average number of piglets weaned at day 28 was found in sows that farrowed in May, as well as the highest number recorded for the stillborn piglets with an average of 2.67 piglets per sow. Moreover, the smallest increase in weight from birth to weaning occurred in piglets that were farrowed in May, which also corresponds with the average daily gain (ADG) of 0.29 kg and the last recorded weight measurement on day 140 of $41.69{\pm}1.45kg$. Contrastingly, the highest growth rate was found among pigs farrowed in June, with the largest increase in weight of 7.55 kg from birth to weaning, the highest ADG of 0.51 kg from birth to 140 day of age and the highest BW of $74.70{\pm}1.86kg$ recorded on day 140. Conclusion: Pigs farrowed in June also had the least number of piglets that died between birth and weaning. The zone of thermal comfort found in sows reared in indoor confinement systems did not improve the reproductive performance of the sows reared in an outdoor, alternative production system, while the growth performance of the piglets was improved when the ambient temperature was consistently hot or consistently cold.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.301-306
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• 2004

This study was conducted to develop new markers at the region that was related to QTL affecting intramuscular fat and backfat thickness on chromosome 6q28 - 6q32 in pigs. Dozens of repeated sequences were founded using shotgun sequencing of several BAC clones corresponding to that region, of which five new microstellite markers that identified polymorphism were discovered. The mean number of alleles at each locus observed 2.13(KP0290F2), 4.63(KP0248Cll), 7.38(KP1231C91), 2.75(KPI23IC92) and 6.2S(KP1231C93) in 8 breeds(Landrace, Korean native pig, Duroc, Yorkshire, Berkshire, Wuzhishan pig, Xiang pig, Min pig). The average estimated heterozygosity values at each locus varied from 0.2100(KP0290F2) to 0.8304(KPI23IC91) in all populations. In other hand, the average allele of all loci WlL'I within range of 0.4517(Berkshire) and 0.6957 (Yorkshire). Of these markers, KP0248C11, KP1231C91 and KP1231C93 were identified to have optimal number of alleles, high heterozygosity values and low standard deviation values. Especially, KPI23IC91 and KPI231C93 might be considered as a useful marker for genetic mapping and diversity study.