Mapping genetic loci that interact with myostatin to affect growth traits

Myostatin, or GDF8, is an inhibitor of skeletal muscle growth. A non-functional myostatin mutation leads to a double muscling phenotype in some species, for example, mice, cattle and humans. Previous studies have indicated that there are loci in the genome that interact with myostatin to control backfat depth and other complex traits. We now report a quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping study designed to identify loci that interact with myostatin to impact growth traits in mice. Body weight and average daily gain traits were collected on F2 progeny derived from a myostatin-null C57BL/6 strain by M16i cross. In all, 44 main effect QTL were detected above a 5% genome-wide significance threshold when an interval mapping method was used. An additional 37 QTL were identified to significantly interact with myostatin, sex or reciprocal cross. A total of 12 of these QTL interacted with myostatin genotype. These results provide a foundation for the further fine mapping of genome regions that harbor loci that interact with myostatin.