Resistin (RETN) is a multifunctional gene involved in energy metabolism that regulates animals growth and development.It is also an important candidate gene for meat quality selection through marker-assisted selection.Using PCR-SSCP technology, a novel missense substitution SNP(single-nucleotide polymorphism) g._2528T>C was identified in the exon 2 region of the RETN gene.Allele frequencies, gene heterozygosity, effective allele number and polymorphism information content of the bovine RETN SNP in six populations were investigated and calculated by the x2 test.The distribution of the polymorphism from the studied six Bos taurus breeds was not uniform.Our results suggested that Qinchuan, Luxi and Luxi×Simmental were not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.Moreover, the polymorphism and its association with meat quality traits were analyzed in 369Qinchuan and 73 Nanyang individuals.The analyzed SNP in the resistin revealed a significant association with marbling and intramuscular fat (P < 0.05).We observed that TT genotype was associated with a heighten marbling score when compared with the TC and CC in Qinchuan and Nanyang breeds.In Qinchuan breed, we also found that TT genotype was associated with an increased intramuscular fat content when compared with the TC.Such associations were not observed on backfat thickness, loin-muscle area and loin-muscle depth.Our study showed that polymorphism of the RETN gene is potentially associated with Bos taurus meat quality traits.