Research Note: Association of temporal expression of myostatin with hypertrophic muscle growth in different Japanese quail lines

Myostatin (MSTN) negatively regulates in muscle growth and development. Among alternative splicing isoforms of avian MSTN, MSTN-A has antimyogenic activities and MSTN-B functions as a promyogenic factor. In this study, different lines of Japanese quail were used: a random bred control (RBC) and a heavy weight (HW) quail line with muscle hypertrophy. The objectives of the current study are to compare temporal expression of the MSTN isoforms in pectoralis major muscle (PM) between 2 quail lines and to relate MSTN expression with temporal changes in muscle growth and total amounts of DNA in PM. Gains of body weight (BW) and PM weight were greater until posthatch day (D) 28 (P