Associations between the Bovine Myostatin Gene and Milk Fatty Acid Composition in New Zealand Holstein-Friesian × Jersey-Cross Cows

• Main Authors: Ishaku L. Haruna, Yunhai Li, Ugonna J. Ekegbu, Hamed Amirpour-Najafabadi, Huitong Zhou, Jon G. H. Hickford
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-08-01
• Series: Animals
• Subjects: myostatin gene; variation; milk; fatty acid; cattle
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/9/1447

The myostatin gene (<i>MSTN</i>), which encodes the protein myostatin, is pleiotropic, and its expression has been associated with both increased and decreased adipogenesis and increased skeletal muscle mass in animals. In this study, the polymerase chain reaction, coupled with single strand conformation polymorphism analysis, was utilized to reveal nucleotide sequence variation in bovine <i>MSTN</i> in 410 New Zealand (NZ) Holstein-Friesian × Jersey (HF × J)-cross cows. These cows ranged from 3 to 9 years of age and over the time studied, produced an average 22.53 ± 2.18 L of milk per day, with an average milk fat content of 4.94 ± 0.17% and average milk protein content of 4.03 ± 0.10%. Analysis of a 406-bp amplicon from the intron 1 region, revealed five nucleotide sequence variants (<i>A–E</i>) that contained seven nucleotide substitutions. Using general linear mixed-effect model analyses the <i>AD</i> genotype was associated with reduced C10:0, C12:0, and C12:1 levels when compared to levels in cows with the <i>AA</i> genotype. These associations in NZ HF × J cross cows are novel, and they suggest that this variation in bovine <i>MSTN</i> could be explored for increasing the amount of milk unsaturated fatty acid and decreasing the amount of saturated fatty acid.