Association of single nucleotide polymorphisms of FASN and DGAT1 genes with live weight in beef cattle

The domestic Kalmyk cattle breed is considered unique and differs from all meat breeds bred in Russia. Animals of this breed are endowed with natural endurance and independence from climatic conditions, they are characterized by high adaptive ability, which makes it possible to breed them both in purity and in various schemes of crossing with other breeds in many regions and regions of our country. In addition, beef from animals of this breed has quite high quality and taste indicators. Given the increasing need for high-quality beef, the need for research aimed at increasing the meat productivity of cattle is an urgent task of agricultural science and practice.The aim of the work is to study the polymorphisms of the FASN and DGAT1 genes and their association with live weight in a population of Kalmyk bull calves bred in an extremely arid climatic and semi-arid ecological landscape zone of the Stavropol Territory. The studies were conducted in the conditions of SPK (kolkhozplemzavod) "Druzhba" (Druzhba collective farm) of Stavropol Krai on Kalmyk steers (n=156) at the age of 8 months. To study the polymorphisms of the FASN and DGAT1 genes, genotyping was performed by PCRPDRF using lyophilized ready-made GenPak ® PCR Core reaction mixtures using a pair of primers selected on the Primer-BLAST resource. It was found that animals carrying AG and GG genotypes in the replacement of g.17924A>G of the FASN gene had a live weight of 7.8 and 11.9% more than the AA genotype, as well as among the entire studied livestock for the two studied genes. Animals carrying the homozygous TT genotype of c.1416T > G polymorphism in the DGAT1 gene had a higher live weight among all animals studied for this gene by 5%.