Researches in livestock are currently actively progressing to improve economically important traits using DNA markers. In cattle, the candidate genes have been selected based on their known functions in the target QTL (quantitative trait locus) region in order to identify QTN (quantitative trait nucleotide) for improving productivities. In this review, molecular genetic studies for the meat related traits, one of the major determinant of market prices, have been fully described. Also recent emerging microarray technique for identifying candidate genes in cattle has been discussed. In case of microarray, cDNA microarrays have been replaced to oligoarrays in order to minimize the experimental errors in cattle. Since the first draft of bovine genome sequences was appeared in the public domain, more markers in relation to the quantitative traits will be discovered in a short period of time and genes affecting difficult-to-measure traits, such as disease resistance, can also be selected for marker assisted selection in near future.