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Breeding efforts of beef cattle aim to improve important economic traits including the growth rate, meat quantity and quality.Molecular marker-assisted selection (MAS) based on genetic variation is regarded as a potential method for genetic improvement to livestock breeding with better economic traits.As a signal transducer, smoothened (SMO) protein plays an important role in the regulation of both osteogenesis and adipogenesis through Hedgehog (Hh) pathway.Thus, this study detected polymorphisms in bovine SMO gene and analyzed their associations with body measurement traits (BMTs) and meat quality traits (MQTs) in Qinchuan cattle.Using DNA sequencing and polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) methods, three novel nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in SMO gene were revealed in 562 Qinchuan cattle: one G>C mutation in exon 9 (G21234C) and two C>T mutations in exon 11 (C22424T and C22481T).Association analysis results showed that polymorphisms of both G21234C and C22424T loci had significant effects on some of the BMTs and MQTs (P<0.05 or P<0.01) while C22481T locus did not (P>0.05) in the present study.These results suggested that the SMO gene could be used as a candidate gene affecting BMTs and MQTs in Qinchuan cattle and could also be used for marker-assisted to select Qinchuan cattle with superior BMTs and MQTs.