Copy number variation of bovine as a positional candidate affected body measurements.

Beef production is closely related to the national economy and the attention has been paid to the improvement of beef cattle by molecular markers associated. Copy number variations (CNVs) recently have been gained many researches and recognized as an important source of genetic variation. Extensive studies have indicated that CNVs have effects on a large range of economic traits by a wide range of gene copy number alteration. S100A7 is a member of S100 family which is a famous family of Ca-binding proteins. plays a crucial role in many important phenotypes (progress) including inflammatory diseases, psoriasis, obesity, etc. The aim of our study was to explore the phenotypic effects of CNV located in the gene of bovine chromosome 3. We detected CNV by qPCR in different cattle breeds, including Qinchuan cattle, Yunling cattle, Xianan cattle and a crossbred group Pinan. The copy number was identified as gain, normal and loss type, our results showed that the gain type was the main type in three types of CNV of the whole tested breeds. After CNV detection, association analysis between CNV and growth traits was carried out in four cattle breeds. We found significant effects of the CNV on cattle growth traits with differently preferred CNV types such as gain type with better chest depth ( = 0.043) in QC, loss type with better body length ( = 0.008) and rump width ( = 0.014) in YL, normal with better chest girth ( = 0.001), gain with better waist width ( = 0.001) and rump width ( = 0.044) in PN. These results suggested that the CNV could affect the phenotypic traits and be used as a promising genetic marker for cattle molecular breeding.