In recent years, higher standards of living have led consumers to pay more attention to the quality of beef. High quality beef brings satisfaction to consumers, as well as higher profits to producers. High quality beef is assessed based on the following indicators: marbling score, muscle color, fat color, tightness of meat and flavor [
1]. Nowadays, marbling is considered as an indicator of meat quality in the beef quality grading system. It was revealed for the first time that there is a negative correlation between concentration of serum vitamin A and marbling scores, and thus the restriction of vitamin A tended to increase marbling scores in terms of carcass traits [
2]. Also, the study by Oka et al [
2] suggested that restriction of vitamin A in the early fattening stage would affect the marbling in Japanese black cattle [
2]. Meanwhile, when the vitamin A supplement in feedlot heifers was removed, it was found that marbling was increased without affecting the thickness of back fat or animal health [
3]. Among numerous factors, genetics can also affect the quality of beef. Marker-assisted management contributes to slaughter performance as well as animal by-products. In addition, it can be inferred that the single nucleotide polymorphism in of alcohol dehydrogenase 1C (ADH1C c.-64T>C) is associated with intramuscular fat (IMF) and vitamin A restriction in finishing rations of Angus-cross steers [
4]. Many previous studies have shown that alcohol dehydrogenase 1 (ADH1) is a major enzyme in achieving the oxidation from retinol to retinaldehyde in mouse experiments [
5]. And retinaldehyde dehydrogenases (RALDH) oxidize retinaldehyde to retinoic acid, primarily by RADLH1 [
6]. In previous studies, marbling in TT type of
ADH1C gene was higher than TC and CC type during the 5 months restriction of vitamin A in Angus crossbred steers [
4]. It has also been found that concentration of serum vitamin A was affected by the time of vitamin A restriction. From this, it could be inferred that serum vitamin A was also affected by the gene of
ADH1C. However, the association was not definite in Korean native steers. Thus, the genotype of ADH1C in Korean native steers needs to be investigated. Meanwhile, when fed a diet with vitamin A restriction, the effect of vitamin A restriction and ADH1C genotype in serum vitamin A and carcass traits needs to be assessed.