Sex Love and DNA (for Mobi) by Schattner Peter

Author:Schattner, Peter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Olingo Press
Published: 2014-09-24T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 16.2. Normal mouse and myostatin knockout mouse.

Mice aren’t the only animals that have taught us about myostatin. We’ve also learned from a dog breed called a whippet, which has been bred over centuries to be racers. Some whippets also have unusual variants in their myostatin genes. Although the whippet myostatin mutation is different from the one in the knockout mice, the end result is the same: nonfunctional myostatin protein. Occasionally, a whippet inherits a nonfunctional myostatin gene from both parents. These dogs have no functional myostatin protein whatsoever and are known in the dog-breeding world as bully whippets. They have a muscle-bound appearance and a noticeable overbite. As a result, they are often euthanized by breeders, but those that are allowed to live are quite healthy. In contrast to bully whippets, some other whippets inherit just one nonfunctional myostatin gene, along with one normal myostatin gene from their other parent. These dogs produce functioning myostatin protein, but only about half as much as in a normal whippet. They appear normal and are healthy, and they generally run faster than normal whippets.

After the nonfunctional myostatin gene variant was found in whippets, scientists began looking for nonfunctional myostatin variants in other dog breeds. Surprisingly, no such variant has been found, not even in greyhounds, a related racing-dog breed. Could a nonfunctional myostatin gene be more advantageous to a whippet than to a greyhound? Actually it could, because myostatin has a second function in regulating muscle development: myostatin also plays a role in skeletal muscle-fiber differentiation.

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