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Double-muscled cattle are breeds of cattle that carry one of seven known mutations that limits and reduces the activity of the myostatin protein. Normally, myostatin limits the number of muscle fibers present at birth, and interfering with activity of this protein causes animals to be born with higher numbers of muscle fibers, consequently augmenting muscle growth.
Myostatin-related muscle hypertrophy is a rare genetic condition characterized by reduced body fat and increased skeletal muscle size. [1] Affected individuals have up to twice the usual amount of muscle mass in their bodies, but increases in muscle strength are not usually congruent. [ 2 ]
The active-myostatin gene acts as a "governor" on muscle growth; myostatin is a protein that instructs muscles to stop growing. In effect, when inactive, as it is with Piedmontese cattle, it no longer prevents muscle development which is what allows for the hypertrophic condition sometimes referred to as "double muscling". [7]
The Belgian Blue's bone structure is the same as normal cattle, albeit holding a greater amount of muscle, which causes them to have a greater meat to bone ratio. These cattle have a muscle yield around 20% more on average than cattle without the genetic myostatin mutation. [ 7 ]
Myostatin is a myokine that is produced and released by myocytes and acts on muscle cells to inhibit muscle growth. [7] Myostatin is a secreted growth differentiation factor that is a member of the TGF beta protein family. [8] [9] Myostatin is assembled and produced in skeletal muscle before it is released into the blood stream. [10]
Feeder cattle or store cattle are young cattle soon to be either backgrounded or sent to fattening, most especially those intended to be sold to someone else for finishing before butchering. In some regions, a distinction between stockers and feeders (by those names) is the distinction of backgrounding versus immediate sale to a finisher.
In cattle, certain growth features are controlled by recessive genes which have not so far been controlled, complicating breeding. [11] One such trait is dwarfism; another is the doppelender or "double muscling" condition, which causes muscle hypertrophy and thereby increases the animal's commercial value. [11]
Muscle hypertrophy or muscle building involves a hypertrophy or increase in size of skeletal muscle through a growth in size of its component cells. Two factors contribute to hypertrophy: sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which focuses more on increased muscle glycogen storage; and myofibrillar hypertrophy, which focuses more on increased myofibril ...