Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method for screening for the allele associated with a desired SCS phenotype, which comprises: obtaining a DNA sample from a bull to be tested for the desired SCS phenotype; and detecting the presence of an adenine at position 11 in a gene encoding a bovine beta2-adrenoreceptor. Also disclosed is a milling attribute PCR-RFLP kit containing a pair of primers which flank the 11th nucleotide position of the bovine beta2-adrenoreceptor gene, and a restriction enzyme specific for the CCCGGG site, which can be SmaI.

Abstract: The invention provides methodologies for improved molecular genetic analysis of individual animals and animal populations. The invention includes methods and systems for identifying those animals in a population that are most likely to heritably pass on desirable traits. Provided are means for evaluating the estimated breeding values and increasing the average genetic merit for animals in a population. For each trait, the instant invention provides methods for evaluating the relative effect of one or more quantitative trait loci (QTL) and three or more molecular genetic markers for each QTL The relationship between these various markers and the pre-selected trait and QTL is calculated, along with the contribution of other factors such as pedigree and known measures with respect to quantitative trait, and these data are used to calculate estimated breeding values for the animals in the herd and to rank the animals according to these estimated breeding values.