Muscle specific differences in the regulation of myogenic differentiation in chickens genetically selected for divergent growth rates.

ABSTRACT: With the human population predicted to reach 9 billion by 2050, increasing food supplies while maintaining adequate standards of animal welfare has become a global priority. In the poultry industry, broilers are genetically selected for greater pectoral but not leg muscularity yield leading to leg disorders and thereby welfare issues. It is known that the pectoralis major of broilers contains more muscle fibres of larger diameters than egg-layers but little is known about the leg gastrocnemius muscle cellular characteristics. As muscle fibre numbers are set by hatch, the molecular regulation of myogenesis was investigated in pectoral (selected) and gastrocnemius (unselected) muscles of chick embryos to help explain diverging post-hatch phenotypes. Results showed that broilers were more act

SUBMITTER: Al-Musawi SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3181402 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature