• Development and Reproduction
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.141-146
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• 2006

Genotype data from seven microsatellites typed in 231 animals were used to estimate the genetic structures of eight cow population distributed by regional area in Hanwoo (Korean cattle). In total, 53 alleles were detected from the genotyping of seven microsatellite markers. The average of expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.682 to 0.734 in 8 population of Hanwoo. Even though there were also some of alleles that were found in only specific regional population, similar frequency pattern for the most of alleles appeared in various 8 population. Genetic distances between populations were obtained using STDUPGMA method to construct a phylogenetic tree. The tree illustrated that most individuals were grouped on the basis of populations, distributed by the regional area. Some of genetic parameter on the basis of microsatellite gonotyping appears to provide a useful tool for examining the regional area kindship and genetic variation in Hanwoo.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.951-960
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• 2018

Hanwoo cattle are an important food source in Korea and their supply can have a major impact on meat availability for Korean consumers. The Hanwoo population was 1.8 million head in 2005 and gradually increased to 2.6 million in 2015. Per capita beef consumption has also increased, to 11.6 kg per year in 2015, and is expected to continue to increase. Because intramuscular fat percentage is a critical contributor to meat quality, Hanwoo cattle are fed a high-energy corn-based diet for long fattening periods. Long fed diet causes significant alterations in fat percentage in the loin muscle and other areas of the carcass. However, these long feeding periods increase feeding costs and beef prices. Recently, there has been increased Korean consumer demand for lean beef which has less fat, but is tender and priced more reasonably. These consumer demands on the Korean beef industry are driving differing beef production systems and also changes to the beef grading methodology. Korean government has made a significant investment to select bulls with favorable production traits using progeny testing. Progeny tested bull semen has been disseminated to all Hanwoo farmers. A beef traceability system has been employed for all cattle breeds in Korea since 2009. Hanwoo cattle are ear-marked with a 12-digit identification number from birth to slaughter. This number allows traceability of the management history of individual cattle, and also provides information to consumers. Traceability including management information such as herd, farm, year of birth, and carcass data can determine estimated breeding values of Hanwoo. For a sustainable Hanwoo industry, research scientists in Korea have attempted to develop feeds for efficient fattening periods and precision feeding systems based on genetic information for Hanwoo cattle. These initiatives aim to Korean consumer demands for beef and provide more precision management in beef production in Korea.

• BMB Reports
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• v.49 no.9
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• pp.514-519
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• 2016

Korean cattle (Hanwoo) are categorized into three breeds based on color: brown, brindle, and black. Among these breeds, brown Hanwoo has been subjected to intensive selection to improve meat traits. To identify genetic traces driven by recent selection in brown Hanwoo, we scanned the genomes of brown and brindle Hanwoo using a bovine SNP chip. We identified 17 candidate selection signatures in brown Hanwoo and sequenced four candidate regions from 10 individuals each of brown and brindle Hanwoo. In particular, non-synonymous SNPs in the ADSL gene (K88M, L189H, and R302Q) might have had mutational effects on protein structure as a result of altering the purine pathway during nucleotide breakdown. The ADSL gene was previously reported to affect meat quality and yield in livestock. Meat quality and yield are main breeding goals for brown Hanwoo, and our results support a potential causal influence of non-synonymous SNPs in the ADSL gene.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.56 no.8
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• pp.27.1-27.6
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• 2014

The fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene plays an important role in the regulation of energy homeostasis, fat deposition and obesity. For this reason, the FTO gene is a physiological and functional candidate gene for carcass and meat quality traits in beef cattle. The objectives of this study were to identify SNPs in the exonic regions of FTO gene and to evaluate the association of these SNPs with carcass traits in Hanwoo (Korean cattle). In this study, we newly identified two exonic SNPs in Hanwoo population. The g.125550A > T SNP was located in exon 3 and the g.175675C > T SNP was located in exon 6. Genotyping of the two SNP markers was carried out using PCR-RFLP analysis in Hanwoo steers to evaluate their association with carcass traits. As a result, g.125550A > T SNP genotype was significantly associated with effects on marbling score. Animals with the AA and TT homozygous genotypes had a significantly higher marbling score (p < 0.001) than those with AT heterozygous genotype, and this was significant after Bonferroni correction of the significance threshold (p = 0.003). Dominance effect was also observed for the marbling score (P < 0.05) with higher marbling score of homozygous animals. However, no significant associations with meat quality traits were observed for the g.175675C > T SNP. Our results suggest that the exonic SNP g.125550A > T in the FTO gene may be used as a DNA marker for the selection of Hanwoo with higher marbling.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.776-782
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• 2012

Marbling (intramuscular fat) is the most economically important meat quality trait in Hanwoo (Korean cattle). The endothelial differentiation G-protein coupled receptor 1 (EDG1) gene, involved in blood vessel formation, is located within the genomic region of a quantitative trait locus (QTL) for marbling on bovine chromosome 3. Thus, the EDG1 gene can be considered as a positional and functional candidate gene for meat quality in beef cattle. This study aimed to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the EDG1 gene and to evaluate their associations with carcass traits in Hanwoo population. We have sequenced a fragment of 5'-UTR of the EDG1 gene and identified one SNP. Genotyping of the g.166A>G SNP marker was carried out using PCR-RFLP analysis in 309 Hanwoo steers in order to evaluate their association with carcass traits. The g.166A>G SNP marker showed a significant effect on the marbling score. Animals with the GG genotype had higher marbling score compared with AA and AG genotypes (p<0.05). This SNP marker also showed a significant additive effects for the marbling score (p<0.05). These results suggest that the EDG1 gene can be used as a molecular marker for DNA marker-assisted selection in order to increase the levels of the marbling score in Hanwoo.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.322-329
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• 2011

A whole genome association (WGA) study was conducted to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) for body conformation traits in Hanwoo cattle. The phenotypes of 497 steers were recorded from the Hanwoo Improvement Center of National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, Seosan, Korea, and analyzed using the Illumina Bovine 50 k SNP chip. A set of 35,987 SNPs that were available in the Hanwoo population was selected from the chip. After adjustments for the effects of year-season of birth, region and sire, phenotypes were regressed on each SNP using a linear regression model. Three hundred nineteen SNPs were detected for the ten conformation traits (p<0.003). For the significant SNPs, stepwise regression procedures were applied to determine best sets of markers. A total of 72 SNPs were selected (p<0.001), for which the sets of 5, 9, 10, 9, 8, 11, 4, 6, 3 and 7 SNPs were determined for height at withers, rump height, body length, chest depth, chest width, rump length, hip width, thurl width, pinbone width and heart girth, respectively. About 7-26% of the total phenotypic variation was explained by the set of SNPs for each trait. QTL for the conformation traits were harbored on most bovine chromosomes (BTAs). Four SNPs with pleiotropic effects on height at withers and rump height were detected on BTAs 3, 4, 6 and 16. A SNP with pleiotropic effects on chest width and rump length was also detected on BTA10. Two QTL regions, i.e. between 87 and 97 Mb in BTA3 and between 41 and 44 Mb in BTA7, were found, in which SNPs were detected for the five and three conformation traits, respectively. The detected SNPs need to be validated in other Hanwoo populations for commercial application to the genetic improvement of conformation characteristics in Hanwoo via marker-assisted selection (MAS).

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1791-1797
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• 2007

A study was conducted with 70 Hanwoo (Korean cattle) for genotyping bovine leukocyte antigen (BoLA)-DRB3.2 gene by using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequence based typing (SBT). Two-step PCR was carried out for amplifying a 284 bp fragment of the target gene and the PCR products were digested with three restriction enzymes namely RsaI, BstYI and HaeIII. Seventeen alleles were detected with frequencies ranging from 1.43 to 18.57% and one (x'aa) of these alleles was identified as a new allele that has not been reported before. The frequency of the new x'aa allele identified in this breed was 12.86%. In addition, the seven most frequently observed alleles (DRB3.2 *10, *15, *16, *26, *27, *54 and x'aa) accounted for 74.28% of the alleles in this population. The phylogenetic tree showed that the BoLA-DRB3.2 allele sequences of Hanwoo were shared with other Bos taurus breeds and no specific clade for Hanwoo was identified. It indicates high heterogeneity of the BoLA-DRB3 gene in this population and may give some ideas for breeding animals having better disease resistance.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.297-302
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• 2011

This study was carried out to estimate average inbreeding coefficients, relatedness and effective population size of breeding bulls and to suggest optimal alternatives on problems of current Hanwoo improvement system. Data on proven and young bulls were obtained from 1,128 heads of Livestock Improvement Main Center from 1983 to 2008. Pedigree information on proven and young bulls was obtained from 3,760 heads of Korea Animal Improvement Association. Average inbreeding coefficients and average relatedness of proven and young bulls were estimated at the range of 0.04-0.07%, 0.10-6.82%, respectively. Effective population size was estimated for 220 heads from the average rate of inbreeding of last 26 years. Average inbreeding coefficient is rising rapidly for the last two years as well as average relatedness. Effective population size was estimated for 47 heads for the last five years. These results suggest that selection criteria of proven bulls should include not only genetic evaluation of carcass performance from progeny-test, but also inbreeding and relationship coefficients, in order to maintain genetic variability of Hanwoo. In addition, effective population size should be increased by increasing the number of proven bulls.

• Journal of Embryo Transfer
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.257-261
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• 2008

The objective of present study was to investigate the effect of seasons on reproductive performance of Hanwoo and Holstein heifers. Heat stress in summer or cold stress in winter stress to Hanwoo and Holstein heifers may bring reproduction failure, which would pose an important economic loss, even around Daegwallyeong region located in high mountainous area. Seasonal differences in the serum levels of LH, FSH and progesterone ($P_4$) in response to environmental factors (hot and cold) out of 20 pubertal Hanwoo heifers in Daegwallyeong, Gangwon Province and 20 non-lactating Holstein heifers in Chonan city of Republic of Korea at 2-3 years of age were compared. Blood samples for hormonal analysis were from jugular vein after detection of estrus repeatedly over four seasons within four-week intervals (Spring: May to June, Summer: July to August, Autumn: October to November and Winter: January to February). In Hanwoo heifer population, averages of LH and FSH concentration in spring and in summer were greater compared to those in winter (p<0.05). LH or FSH levels tended to be greater (p=0.06) in spring and less (p=0.09) in winter compared to the levels in autumn. Only in summer, cattle seemed to show lower LH or FSH secretion (p<0.05). Similar to the results in Hanwoo heifers, the serum concentrations of LH and FSH in Holstein heifers decreased further by heat stress in summer when P 4 levels were high during luteal phase. The results demonstrate significant effect of summer heat on reproduction of Hanwoo or Holstein heifers. Although parameters indicating the extent of heat stress were not measured in this study, we suggest that serum hormone levels could be considered as successful indicators of summer heat stress condition for Hanwoo and Holstein heifers even under rather cool summer climate.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.4.1-4.6
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• 2020

Transposable elements (TEs) constitute approximately half of Bovine genome. They can be a powerful species-specific marker without regression mutations by the structure variation (SV) at the time of genomic evolution. In a previous study, we identified the Hanwoo-specific SV that was generated by a TE-association deletion event using traditional PCR method and Sanger sequencing validation. It could be used as a molecular marker to distinguish different cattle breeds (i.e., Hanwoo vs. Holstein). However, PCR is defective with various final copy quantifications from every sample. Thus, we applied to the droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) platform for accurate quantitative detection of the Hanwoo-specific SV. Although samples have low allele frequency variation within Hanwoo population, ddPCR could perform high sensitive detection with absolute quantification. We aimed to use ddPCR for more accurate quantification than PCR. We suggest that the ddPCR platform is applicable for the quantitative evaluation of molecular markers.