Association of variants and expression levels of MYOD1 gene with carcass and muscle characteristic traits in domestic pigeons

This study was to investigate the correlations of myogenic differentiation 1 (MYOD1) gene polymorphisms with carcass traits and its expression with breast muscle development in pigeons. Four SNPs were found in the pigeon MYOD1 gene. Correlation analysis showed that individuals with AA genotype at both SNPs g.2967A > G (p < .01) and g.3044G > A (p < .05) have significantly higher live weight (LW), carcass weight (CW), semi-eviscerated weight (SEW), eviscerated weight (EW) and breast muscle weight (BMW). Moreover, the two SNPs also had the same significant effects on MYOD1 mRNA expression levels in breast muscle of pigeons, ie, the AA genotype showed higher MYOD1 mRNA expression levels. The diameter and cross-section area of muscle fibers continuously increased from 0w to 4w (p < .05), accompanied with the increasing expression of MYOD1 gene, while the density decreased (p < .05) dramatically from 0w to 1w and continuously fell over in the next few weeks (p > .05). What's more, the expression level of MYOD1 gene was positively correlated with a diameter (r = 0.937, p < .05) and cross-sectional area (r = 0.956, p < .01) of myofiber, and negatively correlated with density (r = −0.769, p < .01). The results showed that individuals with AA genotype at both SNPs g.2967A > G and g.3044G > A have showed higher carcass traits (LW, CW, SEW, EW, and BMW) and higher MYOD1 mRNA expression level in breast muscle than AB and BB genotypes. Moreover, the expression level of MYOD1 gene was closely correlated with muscle characteristic traits, indicating variants of MYOD1 gene was closely related to muscle development and could be a potential candidate gene in marker-assisted selection of pigeons.