Myostatin
Double muscling is associated with muscular hypertrophy (increase in the number of muscle fibers) and arises from a mutation in the myostatin (MSTN) gene. There are numerous variants of the myostatin gene namely; Nt821, Q204x and F94L, among others. Depending on the allele combinations and variant, different degrees of double muscling and consequences may be expected. Both the Unistel and Neogen pipeline produce results for myostatin and are reported as follows:
- Unistel:
- Clear – the animal is not affected nor a carrier for that variant
- Carrier – the animal is a carrier for that variant
- Affected – the animal is affected for that variant
- Neogen:
- 0 – the animal does not have the double muscling phenotype nor are they a carrier for that variant
- 1 – the animal is a carrier (heterozygous) for that variant and has the double muscling phenotype
- 2 – the animal is a carrier (homozygous) for that variant and has the double muscling phenotype
Horned/Poll
Polled animals genetically do not have horns whereas horned animals do. There is the Friesian and Celtic variant of the gene that affects horned/poll. Unistel produce results for the Celtic variant and Neogen produces results for both the Celtic and Friesian variants. The results are reported as follows:
- Unistel:
- Homozygous horned – the animal is phenotypically horned and not a carrier for the Celtic variant
- Heterozygous polled – the animal is phenotypically polled for the Celtic variant
- Homozygous polled – the animal is phenotypically polled and is also a carrier for the Celtic variant
- Neogen:
- HH – the animal is phenotypically horned and not a carrier for that variant
- PcPc/PfPf – the animal is phenotypically polled for that variant
- HPc/HPf – the animal is phenotypically polled and is also a carrier for horned (heterozygous)
Tenderness
Tenderness is testing the animal’s genetic potential for tender meat by considering different genes, variants of genes and combinations thereof. Unistel produce results for tenderness and it can be requested from Neogen separately. The results are reported as follows:
- Unistel:
- Unistel report tenderness as the allele combinations for two genes (Calpain 1 and Calpastatin 1) that affect tenderness. Each of these genes has three different variants. The effect of the Calpastatin 1 variants work against the effects of the Calpain 1 variants and the variants within these genes have an additive effect on each other.
- Neogen:
- On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 indicates the genetic potential for the least tender meat and 10 for the most tender meat.