Study on the fatty acid profile of phospholipid and neutral lipid in Hanwoo beef and their relationship to genetic variation

Maize which has very high omega-6 fatty acid content has been used as a main feed grain for Hanwoo beef production to increase marbling, and thus omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids ratio in Hanwoo beef is expected to be biased. To elucidate the current status of omega fatty acids ratio in Hanwoo beef, fatty acid profiles of neutral lipid and phospholipid fraction were analyzed separately using 55 Hanwoo steers’ longissimus dorsi muscle slaughtered at Pyeongchang, Korea from Oct. to Nov. 2015. In addition, an association study was conducted to evaluate associations between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers from references and omega fatty acid profiles in phospholipid of Hanwoo beef samples using analysis of variance (ANOVA). In neutral lipid fraction, composition of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids was higher and polyunsaturated fatty acids was lower compared to those in phospholipid fraction. The mean n-6/n-3 ratios of Hanwoo were 56.059 ± 16.180 and 26.811 ± 6.668 in phospholipid and neutral lipid, respectively. There were three SNPs showing statistically significant associations with omega fatty acid content. GA type of rs41919985 in fatty acid synthase (FASN) was significantly associated with the highest amount of C20:5 n-3 (p = 0.031). CC type of rs41729173 in fatty acid-binding protein 4 (FABP4) was significantly associated with the lowest amount of C22:2n-6 (p = 0.047). AG type of rs42187261 in FADS1 was significantly linked to the lowest concentration of C20:4 n-6 (p = 0.044). The total n-6/n-3 ratio of the steer which has all four SNP types in above loci (27.905) was much lower than the mean value of the total n-6/n-3 ratio in phospholipid of the 55 Hanwoo steers (56.059 ± 16.180). It was found that phospholipid and neutral lipid of Hanwoo have very high n-6/n-3 ratios compared to the reported data from different cow breeds. Four SNPs in genes related with fatty acid metabolism showed significant associations with the fatty acid profile of phospholipid and may have potential as SNP markers to select Hanwoo steers in terms of n-6/n-3 balance in the future.