Research Progress on Multi-vertebral Trait in Livestock

Multi-vertebra trait means increase of the vertebral number in animal, which is positive for livestock. Increased thoracic-lumbar vertebral number will result in improvement of carcass traits, especially carcass length, as well as economic value. Meanwhile, relatively high heritability of multi-vertebra trait is evaluated, providing genetic basis for selecting and breeding of multi-vertebra livestock. As such, individuals with multi-vertebra trait will increase production of domestic animals ultimately. Thus, study on multi-vertebra trait provides theoretical basis for breeding of meat livestock with multi-vertebra. Hitherto, multi-vertebra trait has been found in swine, sheep and bovine. Much information has been revealed in studies on multi-vertebra trait in swine; While that is limited in sheep and bovine. This review summarized variations of vertebral number, effects of multi-vertebra trait on the production traits, and genes or mutations responsible for multi-vertebra trait of livestock animal. Further, the research gap and future direction were analyzed as well.