Biochemical analyses of muscles from poultry bred for rapid growth

In the current study, commercial broiler breeder hens were mated with either commercial broiler breeder males (B/B) or artificially inseminated with semen from Leghorn cockerels (B/L). Embryos and chicks from each mating were used to study the effects of paternal genotype on breast muscle myosin expression without the confounding effects of differences in egg size and embryo development due to maternal genotype. Specifically, the temporal transitions of myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoforms within the pectoralis (P.) major and P. minor were measured. The relative concentration of the embryonic MyHC isoform increased from d 17 through 21 in ovo in both genotypes and was higher in B/B embryos than in B/L embryos (P < or = 0.01). At 21 d posthatch, there was an increased proportion of the adult MyHC isoform within the P. major and P. minor in B/B compared with B/L chicks (P < or = 0.01). This result suggests that the B/B chicks were making the transition to mature skeletal muscle more rapidly than the B/L chicks. Although samples taken from the P. minor of B/B and B/ L chicks exhibited an increased proportion of the adult MyHC isoform and lower proportion of the neonatal MyHC isoform at 21 d, the genetic differences were far more pronounced in the larger P. major (P < or = 0.01). In summary, the P. major from the faster growing B/B chicks exhibited earlier temporal transitions of developmental fast MyHC, and these differences were evident as early as 17 d in ovo.