Myostatin and its implications on animal breeding: a review.
Myostatin, or growth and differentiation factor 8 (GDF8), has been identified as the factor causing a phenotype known as double muscling, in which a series of mutations render the gene inactive, and therefore, unable to regulate muscle fibre deposition. This phenotype occurs at a high frequency in some breeds of cattle such as Belgian Blue and Peidmontese. Phylogenetic analysis has shown that there has been positive selection pressure for non-synonymous mutations within the myostatin gene family, around the time of the divergence of cattle, sheep and goats, and these positive selective pressures on non-ancestral myostatin are relatively recent. To date, there have been reports of nine mutations in coding regions of myostatin that cause non-synonymous changes, of which three cause missense mutations, including two in exon 1 and one in exon 2. The remaining six mutations, located in exons 2 and 3, result in premature stop codons, which are the mutations responsible for the double-muscling phenotype. Unfortunately, breed management problems exist for double-muscled cattle, such as birthing difficulties, which can be overcome through genetically controlled breeding programmes, as shown in this review.
Bellinge
R H S
RH
School of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Murdoch University, Western Australia 6150, Australia.
Liberles
D A
DA
Iaschi
S P A
SP
O'brien
P A
PA
Tay
G K
GK
D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D002417:Cattle / Q000235:genetics*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000002:abnormalities; D055435:Myostatin; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta / Q000235:genetics*
D055435:Myostatin; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta