Analysis of restriction fragment length polymorphism in the bovine growth hormone gene related to growth performance and carcass quality of Korean Native Cattle

This research was conducted to find restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers related to growth performance and meat quality of Korean Native Cattle. DNA was extracted from the blood of Korean Native Cattle steers and Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA digested with restriction enzymes was performed using a bovine growth hormone (GH) cDNA probe. The restriction enzyme that detected RFLPs most frequently was TaqI. Digested fragments with TaqI revealed 6.15, 5.2, 4.5, 4.3, 2.6, 2.4, 1.6, 0.5, 0.3 and 0.2 kb bands. The most frequent band was 1.6 kb, which was exhibited in 11 out of 15 animals. In GH-TaqI RFLP, the 4.3 kb band was correlated with average daily gain (p = 0.021) and carcass weight (p = 0.035). No markers related to meat quality were found.