Expression Marker-Based Strategy to Improve Beef Quality

For beef cattle research, a main objective is to control concomitantly the development of muscles and the qualities of beef cuts. Beef quality is a complex phenotype that is only detectable after slaughter and is highly variable. The beef industry is in need of tools to estimate beef quality of live cattle or online in abattoirs, with specific attention towards sensory attributes (tenderness, juiciness, flavour, and colour). Identification of relevant genetic and genomic markers is ongoing, especially for tenderness--a top priority quality attribute. In this paper, we describe the steps of an expression marker-based strategy to improve beef sensory quality, from the discovery of biomarkers that identify consistent beef and the biological functions governing beef tenderness to the integration of the knowledge into detection tests for desirable animals. These tools should soon be available for the management of sensory quality in the beef production chain for meeting market's demands and assuring good quality standards.