Parent-of-origin effects on carcass traits in Japanese Black cattle.

Variances caused by the differential expression of paternally and maternally imprinted genes controlling carcass traits in Japanese Black cattle were estimated in this study. Data on marbling score (BMS), carcass weight, rib thickness, rib-eye area (REA) and subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT) were collected from a total of 13,115 feedlot steers and heifers in a commercial population. A sire-maternal grandsire model was used to analyse the data, and then, imprinting parameters were derived by replacing the genetic effect of the dam with the effect of the maternal grandsire in the imprinting model to calculate the genetic parameter estimates.