Evaluation of Myostatin Gene Polymorphism in Sanjabi Sheep

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. Dysfunction of myostatin gene has been reported in mammals. In bovine the loss of this gene activity has been associated to double-muscled phenotype observed in some European cattle breeds. Myostatin gene polymorphism has also been studied in sheep. Sanjabi sheep breed is one of the major sheep breeds in Iran, especially in Kermanshah province that until now has not been studied at this locus by molecular markers. Due to the role of myostatin gene in muscle development, the objective of this study was to analyze a coding region containing mutations which potentially altering the myostatin gene expression. DNA from blood samples of one hundred fifty Sanjabi sheep was extracted and used to amplify a 337-bp fragment in myostatin gene. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the PCR product was performed by addition of HaeIII enzyme to the completed PCR reaction. PCR-RFLP genotypes were analyzed. Genotype frequencies of MM, Mm and mm were detected as 2.00%, 1.33% and 96.70%, respectively. Allele frequencies were estimated for M and m alleles as 3.00% and 97.00%, respectively. The data from this study indicated that the Sanjabi sheep was polymorphic for myostatin gene though it was not at Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. Keyword: PCR-RFLP, Polymorphism, Myostatin gene, Sanjabi sheep Archive of SID

[1]  J. McEwan,et al.  Meat quality traits were unaffected by a quantitative trait locus affecting leg composition traits in Texel sheep. , 2005, Journal of animal science.

[2]  J. McEwan,et al.  A directed search in the region of GDF8 for quantitative trait loci affecting carcass traits in Texel sheep. , 2005, Journal of animal science.

[3]  D. Liberles,et al.  Myostatin and its implications on animal breeding: a review. , 2005, Animal genetics.

[4]  E. Gócza,et al.  The role of the myostatin protein in meat quality – a review , 2002 .

[5]  T. Szulc,et al.  The polymorphism of MSTN, PRNP and CSN3 genes in Charolais cattle , 2002 .

[6]  S. Shackelford,et al.  The effects of Piedmontese inheritance and myostatin genotype on the palatability of longissimus thoracis, gluteus medius, semimembranosus, and biceps femoris. , 2001, Journal of animal science.

[7]  S. Smet,et al.  Effect of dietary energy and protein levels on fatty acid composition of intramuscular fat in double-muscled Belgian Blue bulls. , 2000, Meat science.

[8]  J. B. Owen,et al.  Breeding for Disease Resistance in Farm Animals , 1999 .

[9]  Se-Jin Lee,et al.  Double muscling in cattle due to mutations in the myostatin gene. , 1997, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[10]  T. Sonstegard,et al.  Myostatin maps to the interval containing the bovine mh locus , 1997, Mammalian Genome.

[11]  Shirley A. Miller,et al.  A simple salting out procedure for extracting DNA from human nucleated cells. , 1988, Nucleic acids research.

[12]  M. Price,et al.  Incidence of Dystocia and Perinatal Calf Mortality Resulting from Reciprocal Crossing of Double-muscled and Normal Cattle. , 1988, The Canadian veterinary journal = La revue veterinaire canadienne.