Characterization of the complete porcine MSTN gene and expression levels in pig breeds differing in muscularity

Abstract

Myostatin (MSTN), a transforming growth factor beta superfamily member, is an essential factor for the growth and development of muscle mass. The protein functions as a negative regulator of muscle growth and is related to the so-called double-muscling phenotype in cattle, where a series of mutations renders the gene inactive. One particular breed of pigs, the Belgian Piétrain, also shows a heavily muscled phenotype. The similarity of muscular phenotypes between the double-muscled cattle and Piétrain pigs indicated that MSTN may be a candidate gene for muscular hypertrophy in pigs. In this study, we sequenced and analysed the complete MSTN gene from 45 pigs of five different breeds, including the heavily muscled Piétrain breed at one extreme and the Meishan and Wild boar breeds at the other extreme. In total, 7626 bp of the porcine MSTN gene were sequenced, including the 5' and 3' UTR. Fifteen polymorphic loci were found, three of which were located in the promoter region, five in intron 1 and seven in intron 2. Most mutations were found when comparing the obtained MSTN sequence with porcine MSTN sequences already published. However, one polymorphism located at position 447 of the porcine MSTN promoter had a very high allele frequency in the Piétrain pig breed and disrupted a putative myocyte enhancer factor 3 binding site. Real-time PCR using Sybr Green showed that this mutation was associated with expression levels of the MSTN gene in m. longissimus dorsi at an age of 4 weeks.

Sequence and polymorphism analysis of the camel (Camelus dromedarius) myostatin gene

“…The gene sequence has been shown to be highly conserved across vertebrate species (McPherron and Lee, 1997). Loss-of-function mutations associated with increased skeletal-muscle mass and other pleiotropic effects have been detected in several species, including cattle (Grobet et al, 1997), mice (Szabò et al, 1998), humans (Schuelke et al, 2004), sheep (Clop et al, 2006), dogs (Mosher et al, 2007), chickens (Ye et al, 2007;McFarland et al, 2007;Yang et al, 2003) and putatively pigs (Stinckens et al, 2008). These evidences support the hypothesis that also MSTN function could be highly conserved among vertebrates.…”

Polymorphism identification in the goat MSTN gene and association analysis with growth traits

“…In two Norwegian sheep breeds, two different mutations in the MSTN coding region are associated with carcass conformation and fatness ). In pigs, mutations identified in noncoding regulatory regions affect the level of MSTN gene expression and/or are associated with growth, muscle mass and other carcass traits (Stinckens et al, 2008). Esmailizadeh et al (2008) found a SNP in the MSTN gene affecting birth, growth, carcass and beef quality traits of Bos taurus.…”

Invited review: Measurable biomarkers linked to meat quality from different pig production systems

“…A different mutation creating a regulatory miRNA site was found in the sheep myostatin gene generating an miRNA binding site in the myostatin mRNA, leading to down-regulation of the expression of the myostatin gene in the high-meatiness Texel sheep breed (Clop et al, 2006). However, no evidence exists for a mutation in the porcine myostatin gene (Stinckens et al, 2008). Therefore, we focused on the mechanism of muscle development and growth during prenatal pig development.…”