MC1R gene is known to be the main regulator of the switch between black and red coat color pigments in cattle. However, another gene would be associated with black and brown coat colors of cattle because our previous study reported that there were different coat color animals with the same MC1R genotype. The aim of this study was to identify the candidate region related to black/brown coat color in cattle. For this purpose, we genotyped 313 microsatellite markers evenly distributed across all cattle autosomes in the F2 Japanese Black × Limousin resource family. In addition, 36 microsatellite markers located within candidate regions were developed in order to narrow down the candidate region. Our results revealed that the responsible gene for black/brown coat color would be included in the region from 16.1Mb to 26.5Mb on BTA 16.
