ARS | Publication request: Present and future applications of DNA technologies to improve beef production

Submitted to: Meat Science
Publication Type: Literature
Publication Acceptance Date: May 20, 2008
Publication Date: September 1, 2008
Publisher's URL: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/meatsci
Citation: Allan, M.F., Smith, T.P. 2008. Present and future applications of DNA technologies to improve beef production. Meat Science. 80(1):79-85.

Technical Abstract: Substantial improvements in production efficiency and quality of beef and dairy products have been made possible through manipulation of bovine genetics. The advent of modern breeds in the last two centuries, the institution of phenotypic selection practices and quantitative genetics, even the process of domestication in the distant past, have all represented means to make use of naturally occurring variation in the genome to tailor the animal for a desired outcome. We discuss the history of genome research in cattle and recent technological advances that promise a leap forward in the use of DNA sequence to facilitate selection, in which a detailed genome-level view for individual animals may provide comprehensive and relatively accurate assessment of the consequences, both desired and unintended, of genetic selection for livestock production.