Functional Analysis of Genes Involved in Glycerolipids Biosynthesis ( and ) in Pigs.

Glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase GPAT) enzymes catalyze the first step in triacylglycerol (TAG) synthesis. Genes that belong to the family are potential genetic markers for intramuscular fat content (IMF) content and thus meat quality. The objective of this study was to analyze the expression of and genes in musculus longissimus lumborum, liver and subcutaneous fat of various breeds of pigs. Furthermore, correlations between the genes' expression abundance and utility traits, meat quality and meat texture parameters of pork were determined. The results obtained showed significant differences in the mRNA level of between analyzed tissues and breeds. The highest expression of gene was observed in liver tissue ( ≤ 0.01). Furthermore, significantly higher transcript level in the m. longissimus lumborum was observed for duroc in comparison to other analyzed breeds ( ≤ 0.05). Expression of the gene was shown only in the liver tissues, however statistically significant differences between the analyzed breeds were not observed. Correlation analysis confirmed the highest association between gene expression level in liver and cohesiveness and resilience traits of m. longissimus lumborum ( ≤ 0.01).