TESTING THE PRESENCE OF SNP POLYMORPHISMS IN THE 19^TH INTRON OF THE CALPASTATIN (CAST) GENE ON THE ROMANIAN SPOTTED CATTLE, SIMMENTAL TYPE AND ANGUS BREED

Viorica Coşier

Abstract
    The tenderness of meat is under complex genetic determinism, being studied extensively in the last couple of years on various cattle breeds with respect to genetic variations associated with the trait. Only few of studied loci had major effect on tenderness, with calpains m and µ and calpastatin loci receiving special attention. Calpains m and µ intervene in the post-mortem proteolysis of myofibrils, being in direct relationship with their inhibitor – the calpastatin. The presence of potential Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms on intron 19 of the calpastatin gene (CAST) in mixed cattle breed (meat & milk/Romanian Spotted breed, Simmental type) and specialized meat breed (Angus) were investigated in this study. DNA samples from two cattle breeds were used to determine the SNP polymorphisms in the 552 bp fragment of the 19^th intron of the CAST gene. The presence of mutations was investigated by testing the modifications occurring in BshF1 (GGCC) and RsaI (GTAC) restriction enzyme’s sites. All individuals analysed have had the same electrophoretic profile suggesting that no genuine mutations occurred in both restriction enzyme’s sites of CAST gene (BTA7) from the Bos taurus populations.