Patent ID: 7955803

Claim:
A method for identifying a bovine as having: a higher relative amount of monounsaturated fatty acid (rMUFA) in beef fat phenotype as compared to the general population of bovines; a lower Δ9 desaturase activity as measured by 16:1/16:0 ratio (R2) phenotype as compared to the general population of bovines; and a smaller ribeye area (REA) phenotype as compared to the general population of bovines, said method comprising: (a) obtaining a biological sample from a bovine, said sample comprising nucleic acids from said bovine including the bovine urotensin 2 receptor (UTS2R) gene; (b) detecting in said nucleic acids the presence of an insertion allele of the g.2935-36TA>--polymorphism in the bovine UTS2R gene in both alleles of the bovine UTS2R gene, wherein the insertion allele comprises TA dinucleotide content at the positions corresponding to positions 379 and 380 of SEQ ID NO: 2; and (c) correlating the presence of an insertion allele of the g.2935-36TA>--polymorphism in the bovine UTS2R gene in both alleles of the bovine UTS2R gene with a higher relative amount of monounsaturated fatty acid (rMUFA) in beef fat phenotype as compared to the general population of bovines; a lower Δ9 desaturase activity as measured by 16:1/16:0 ratio (R2) phenotype as compared to the general population of bovines; and a smaller ribeye area (REA) phenotype as compared to the general population of bovines.