Carcass merits are widely considered as economically important traits affecting beef production in the beef cattle industry. However, the genetic basis of carcass traits remains to be well understood. Here, we applied multiple methods, including the Composite of Likelihood Ratio (CLR) and Genome-wide Association Study (GWAS), to explore the selection signatures and candidate variants affecting carcass traits. We identified 11,600 selected regions overlapping with 2214 candidate genes, and most of those were enriched in binding and gene regulation. Notably, we identified 66 and 110 potential variants significantly associated with carcass traits using single-trait and multi-traits analyses, respectively. By integrating selection signatures with single and multi-traits associations, we identified 12 and 27 putative genes, respectively. Several highly conserved missense variants were identified in OR5M13D, NCAPG, and TEX2. Our study supported polygenic genetic architecture of carcass traits and provided novel insights into the genetic basis of complex traits in beef cattle.

胴体优点被广泛认为是影响肉牛行业牛肉生产的重要经济特征。然而，胴体性状的遗传基础仍有待充分了解。在这里，我们应用了多种方法，包括似然比组合 (CLR) 和全基因组关联研究 (GWAS)，来探索影响胴体性状的选择特征和候选变体。我们确定了 11,600 个与 2214 个候选基因重叠的选定区域，其中大多数富含结合和基因调控。值得注意的是，我们分别使用单性状和多性状分析确定了 66 和 110 个与胴体性状显着相关的潜在变体。通过将选择特征与单性状和多性状关联相结合，我们分别鉴定了 12 个和 27 个推定基因。OR5M13D、NCAPG和TEX2。我们的研究支持了胴体性状的多基因遗传结构，并为肉牛复杂性状的遗传基础提供了新的见解。