Myostatin gene

[beebe]

Do all variants of the myostatin gene contribute to lean tender beef? Or are there other expressions?

 

[knabe]

Supposedly only the variant in Piedmontese has an intermediate measurable effect in a homozygous state. It has a stop codon very late in the allele while all the others are much earlier  and have no intermediate effect in a heterozygous state.

I haven’t seen a comparison between homozygous variants though it probably exists and I missed it.

 

[Boreal]

There’s definitely research demonstrating a positive effect on tenderness in Piedmontese heterozygotes. There’s positive tenderness data on the F94L mutation as well. I’m fairly certain I’ve previously seen data on other mutations, too. That said, there’s a demonstrably negative effect on flavour and juiciness - particularly in homozygotes. As well, there’s interplay between myostatin and u-caplain - that changes things a bit. But research on that is new and limited.

The gist of most of the research is that a myostatin heterzygote will likely improve overall carcass quality without sacrificing much on the reproductive end of things.

 

[knabe]

https://www.irishlimousin.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Limousin-Fact-Sheet-3-Myostatin-FINAL.pdf
https://www.progressivegenetics.ie/Blog/Post-Detail/Myostatin-Gene
https://www.deltagenetics.com/uploads/1/3/3/9/13396868/jas8720091576-1581.pdf
https://www.semenstore.co.uk/pages/f94l-tested.html

 

[beebe]

I know where there is a bull that has one copy of F94L and one copy the of  E226 variant.  He is a nice thick bull with a really strong loin.  It seems like a guy like me who sells meat might get some good out of a bull like that used as a terminal cross on commercial cows. Any thoughts?

 

[Dale]

From the applied genetics point of view, the F94L might be useful.  What if any of your cows are carriers of E226?  If a resulting calf were to be homozygous E226, would that not be risky?  Judging from the Canadian testing of Shorthorns, E226 bull carriers now are at near 70 head. 

Some people ignore the myostatin issue, but we had a very large calf born a year ago, and that was reason enough to be sure that our herd bull is myostatin free, in case E226 is elsewhere in our cow herd.  Sometimes lightning strikes twice.  The giant calf at birth was from some POPULAR bloodlines, so I suspect double muscling is a potential problem down the road.  Like the TH defective calf that we had born back in 2005, the ginormous 2018 calf was something I do not want to happen again to our customers or here.

In 2019 every birth here at the Homeplace was unassisted, including a few first calf heifers.  Cowboys like for their cows to give birth on their own.  Trouble free works for me.

In a university herd I saw a double muscled Angus calf decades ago, born without assistance.  Homozygous carriers are not desirable.

 

[Dale]

4282869 is the 2018 calf that inspired us to test our herd bull for myostatin.  At least 5 prominent Shorthorn bulls are in his pedigree as well as other widely-used bloodlines from the past.  Since a huge calf had not been born here in decades, one has to wonder if myostatin was coming into play?   

 

[beebe]

I know the source of the E226 variant, I do not have any of those genetics in my commercial herd.  That is why I think that if all offspring were marketed as beef it should not cause any problems in the future. Thanks for your comments, I want to be very careful about what I do.  I agree on the unassisted births.  I assisted one heifer last year.  One assist out of 160 births.

 

[idalee]

It may be of interest to some of the readers that I recently tested some ET animals in my herd for Myostatin.    One ET daughter of CYT Sparkle Girl 0166  ET sired by Kamilaroi Meat Packer is positive for the E226X mutation.  Since Meat Packer is tested homozygous free in Canada,  this means that CYT Sparkle Girl is a carrier.    Then two of four  ET daughters of HC Sparkle Delight 77W were tested as carriers of the E226X mutation.  They are sired by Four Point Major who was never tested.  However, he has no genetics in his pedigree that are known or suggested as carriers.  Therefore,  this is suggestive, but not confirmative,  that Sparkle Delight 77W may be a carrier as well.
I have determined that I will have a Myostatin free herd so additional testing is in progress.   

 

[mbigelow]

Dale- i did not see test results on the calf you had concerns about. So, did you just speculate that myo might be the culprit.  I have quite a few cows with very similar breeding to the bottom side of that pedigree.  I really dislike having to pay more and test for more things but, as they say, an ounce of prevention is much better than a pound to cure. On a positive note i really do like what i see from both your HC son and the one i have. Keep me posted on how you mate the daughters.

 

[mark tenenbaum]

I only had 2 Sr Red Rider drive calves-They were not big at birth due to the cow side but both had the double muscled look-I think the most pronounced Myostain "looking" bull I remember would be K Kim Hiest Elite Rider-real freaky looking O0

 

[Medium Rare]

So far, 20 females and 28 bulls have results posted in the US database.
Compared to 283 females and 452 bulls posted in the Canadian database.
It looks like several of the US results were actually entered by Canadian breeders.

It's crazy how one little line on a map can have so much influence on something. Considering the consistant flow of genetics south and what some breeders have revealed about the genetics that flowed north, it'll be interesting to see the reaction when more people start testing animals in the US.

The marbling epd, even if accepted as being relatively unproven, seems to have a story to tell in many cases.

 

[Hopster1000]

It may be of interest to some of the readers that I recently tested some ET animals in my herd for Myostatin.    One ET daughter of CYT Sparkle Girl 0166  ET sired by Kamilaroi Meat Packer is positive for the E226X mutation.  Since Meat Packer is tested homozygous free in Canada,  this means that CYT Sparkle Girl is a carrier.    Then two of four  ET daughters of HC Sparkle Delight 77W were tested as carriers of the E226X mutation.  They are sired by Four Point Major who was never tested.  However, he has no genetics in his pedigree that are known or suggested as carriers.  Therefore,  this is suggestive, but not confirmative,  that Sparkle Delight 77W may be a carrier as well.
I have determined that I will have a Myostatin free herd so additional testing is in progress. 

I also have an ET bull by Sparkle Girl and Meat Packet that carriers one E226X gene. I am assuming it comes from Diamond Captain Mark. He is just 16 months and I have tried him on a small number of cows I think are myostatin free.
I also have a cow with 2 copies. She has calved unassisted and milks well. She is from the Elsie's Jade line so assume she also got one copy of the E226X from Diamond Captain Mark.
I have had a little bit of experience with the E226X gene and it is not consistent across lines. Some lines are bigger calves and some lines have smaller calves.

 

[knabe]

It's crazy how one little line on a map can have so much influence on something.

bull of the month club.  draft pick, PHA, Cunia, spastic pareisis and monkey mouth. double stuff is actually quadruple stuff i think.

 

[Dale]

I apologize for not taking a sample from the calf, which we lost--my theory of myo is speculation, but surely something was out of the ordinary?  Canadians reported calving problems in homozygous calves, so I wondered if ours was a myo?

This calf was far outside our normal weight range.  We have not had one even close to this heavy in the last 2 decades.  Even during the 90's excessive birthweights we had nothing as large.  This calf's sire, Homeplace Cool, had no assists even from heifers in another herd (unrecorded data) where he was used.  Over the past 40 years, counting commercial cows, we have calved out a few thousand.  Our registered cattle have their birthweights turned in for 30 years, and progress has been made in moderating birthweights since 1999. 

 

[mark tenenbaum]

Homeplace has had "Performance Tested Shorthorns" since way back since "Performance Testing became a function per se-Along with Waukaru in Indiana as well. I guess my questions would have to do with Red Rider Drive as he had some very old shorthorn genetics close up in his pedigree and certainly looked the part also-any feedback on Red Ryder? O0

 

[aj]

I have kinda lost track of everything. So has the very hot bull "Hot Commodity" been tested. I had purchased a bull a couple years ago that goes back to Wakura Patent so I guess I need to be concerned. It's kind of funny that bull was tested cleaned of the other 3 deals. Now I have a new one to wonder about.

 

[mark tenenbaum]

Why would you be concerned about Patent? I think Dale is alluding to DFS Red Ryder who was sired by Red Rider Drive-Who sure didnt look like rodeo-neither did his calves -some of which were really cool Combine him with Strathore Irish Magic-He certainly was suspect "looking" from his pictures-He was supposed to be sired by a "maine" suspect according to his breeder-( that would be GS Irish Sweepstakes) Now you have the basics for Elite Rider who was pretty freaky looking O0

 

[mbigelow]

We owned DFS Red Rider 839 flush mate to 844 which is in this calf's pedigree.  We used to wonder how anyone would consider these genetics low birth, calving ease?  We had multiple with abnormally large bw.  When i had a chat with Dr. Byers and Lincoln Job about there 878 calves they said the same thing eradic bw's. We just called it the Red Rider disease.  Mark, i think the magic line may have issues as well.

 

[Medium Rare]

Why would you be concerned about Patent?

Patent was tested in Canada and is listed as an E226x carrier.