• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.443-454
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• 2013

Tenderness is the most important meat quality trait, which is determined by intracellular environment and extracellular matrix. Particularly, specific protein degradation and protein modification can disrupt the architecture and integrity of muscle cells so that improves the meat tenderness. Endogenous proteolytic systems are responsible for modifying proteinases as well as the meat tenderization. Abundant evidence has testified that calpains (CAPNs) including calpain I (CAPN1) and calpastatin (CAST) have the closest relationship with tenderness in livestock. They are involved in a wide range of physiological processes including muscle growth and differentiation, pathological conditions and post-mortem meat aging. Whereas, Calpain3 (CAPN3) has been established as an important activating enzyme specifically expressed in livestock's skeletal muscle, but its role in domestic animals meat tenderization remains controversial. In this review, we summarize the role of CAPN1, calpain II (CAPN2) and CAST in post-mortem meat tenderization, and analyse the relationship between CAPN3 and tenderness in domestic animals. Besides, the possible mechanism affecting post-mortem meat aging and improving meat tenderization, and current possible causes responsible for divergence (whether CAPN3 contributes to animal meat tenderization or not) are inferred. Only the possible mechanism of CAPN3 in meat tenderization has been confirmed, while its exact role still needs to be studied further.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 2013

The aim of study was to investigate genetic diversity for the calpain/calpastatin gene in three Hanwoo breeds [(Brown (n=62), Brindle (n=81) and Jeju Black (n=30)]. Random samples from three breeds of Hanwoo were selected and genotyped for the 7 SNPs of calpain/calpastatin using TaqMan method. Allele frequencies were investigated for CAPN1/CAST gene. Allele frequency of CAST2 SNP was 0.75, 0.59 and 0.22 for Brown, Brindle and Jeju black, respectively. The CAST3 revealed allele frequency of 0.59 and 0.57 in Brown and Jeju Black, while it showed very low allele frequency (0.07) in Brindle. In particular, favorable allele (G allele) for the CAPN1-2 SNP which was shown a strong association with tenderness in Taurine and Indicine cattle revealed 16% and 17% higher allele frequency in Brown Hanwoo (0.82) comparing Brindle (0.66) and Jeju Black Hanwoo (0.65). AMOVA demonstrated that among population variance occupied only 10% of total variance and among individual variance was 0%, while within individual variance was 90% of total variance. This result showed that population effect contributed very small portion of genetic to these three Hanwoo breeds, while within individual variance contributed large portion of genetic diversity within these Hanwoo breeds. In conclusion, three Hanwoo breeds (Brown, Brindle and Jeju black) showed a genetically homogeneous based on the 7 SNPs of CAPN1/CAST gene and it came from same ancestor to form modern Hanwoo breed.