Association of SNP Haplotypes at the Myostatin Gene with Muscular Hypertrophy in Sheep

Abstract

The myostatin gene of seven important meat (Beltex (Australia), Beltex×Huyang (F1), Meat and Multi-Prolific Chinese Merino Fine Wool, Meat Chinese Merino Fine Wool and Dorper (South Africa)) and non-meat (Huyang and Kazak) sheep breeds was analyzed to study the genetic basis of muscular hypertrophy (double muscling) phenotype in sheep. SNPs, four in regulatory regions and several in the introns in the myostatin gene, were identified, and the former four SNPs were used for further studies. Twelve haplotypes were predicted by PHASE program, of which four main haplotypes (1, 3, 7, 9) were present in 90% of the 364 sheep in the study. Haplotypes 1-4 were mainly present in meat breeds while haplotypes 7 and 9 dominated the non-meat breeds. The association between haplotypes and average daily gain (ADG) was analyzed among 116 sheep with production data, Haplo2 (CGAA) and Haplo8 (TGAA) were identified to have significant (p<0.05) effect on ADG by the model (JMP5.1 software) taking into account the effects of breed, family background, haplotype, birth weight and sex. ADG of these haplotype groups also correlated well (r = 0.82) with hypertrophic phenotype scores. In conclusion, the mutations -956 (T→C), -41 (C→A) and 6223 (G→A) involved in Haplo2 and 8 may be associated with the double-muscling trait by influencing myostatin function and be suitable markers in selecting meat sheep.

Myostatin (MSTN) gene haplotypes and their association with growth and carcass traits in New Zealand Romney lambs

“…The association of MSTN c.*1232A with increased muscle mass has also been well documented in Texel flocks in both New Zealand and Australia (Johnson et al, 2009;Kijas et al, 2007). This variant was subsequently found in other sheep breeds such as the Charollais (Hadjipavlou et al, 2008), Norwegian White sheep (Boman et al, 2010), Norwegian Spaelsau sheep (Boman and Våge, 2009), Beltex sheep (Gan et al, 2008) and White Suffolk, Poll Dorset and Lincoln sheep in Australia (Kijas et al, 2007).…”

Characterization of 5′ Upstream Region and Investigation of TTTTA Deletion in 5′ UTR of Myostatin (MSTN) Gene in Indian Goat Breeds

“…In addition, it may also help in delineating the important regulatory motifs for better understanding of transcription regulation. Naturally occurring single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the MSTN promoter and 5 0 un-translated region (5 0 UTR) are reported to influence the weight of fattening pigs (14) and development and differentiation of muscle fibers in sheep (15). A significant association of TTTTA deletion in 5 0 UTR with body weight and size of non-Indian goat breeds has also been reported (16,17).…”

Myostatin Gene Expression and Its Application on Goat Breeding Programme

“…Ukuran ini sekitar 2-3 kali lipat ukuran sapi di Indonesia. Karakteristik fisik lainnya yaitu sapi mempunyai relatif sedikit massa tulang, sedikit lemak, persentase karkas minimal 70% dan persentase potongan daging lebih banyak 20% dari sapi potong lain (Lan et al 2007;Gan et al 2008;Fang et al 2009;Guo et al 2009;Supakorn 2009). Total lemak intramuscular pada sapi DM lebih rendah dari sapi non-DM, tetapi persentase poly unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) sapi DM lebih tinggi sedangkan conjungated linoleic acid (CLA) relatif sama pada kedua sapi DM dan non-DM (Raes et al 2001).…”