The ACVR1 gene is significantly associated with growth traits in Chinese beef cattle

Abstract Activin A receptor type 1 ( ACVR1 ) annotated for its involvement in some key signaling pathways is one promising candidate for economic traits. The aim of this study was to analyze its phenotypic effects on cattle growth traits. Four variations including two intronic Indels and two exonic SNPs were detected in 840 cattle from five Chinese cattle breeds by DNA-pool sequencing. Variations g.33008_33024del (rs385690012) and g.41793C>T (rs458497709) were significantly associated with cattle growth traits which were cannon bone circumference (CBC), chest girth (CG), chest depth (CD) ( P T can be used as molecular marker for marker-assisted selection in beef cattle breeding.