Issue |
Reprod. Nutr. Dev.
Volume 42, Number 5, September-October 2002
French-Polish Symposium Animal and Growth development: Regulatory mechanisms |
|
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Page(s) | 415 - 431 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/rnd:2002035 |
DOI: 10.1051/rnd:2002035
Muscle fibre ontogenesis in farm animal species
Brigitte Picarda, Louis Lefaucheurb, Cécile Berric and Michel J. Duclosca INRA, Unité de Recherche sur les Herbivores, Theix, 63122 Saint-Genès-Champanelle, France
b INRA, Unité Mixte de Recherches sur le Veau et le Porc, 35590 Saint-Gilles, France
c INRA, Station de Recherches Avicoles, 37380 Nouzilly, France
Abstract
In farm animals (bovine, ovine, swine, rabbit and poultry), muscle fibre characteristics
play a key role in meat quality. The present review summarises the knowledge on muscle
fibre characteristics and ontogenesis in these species. Myofibre ontogenesis begins very
early during embryonic life, with the appearance of two or three successive waves
of myoblasts which constitute the origin of the different types of muscle fibres.
In small animals (rodents and poultry), a primary and a secondary generation of fibres
arise respectively during the embryonic and foetal stages of development. In the largest
species (bovines, sheep, pigs) a third generation arises in the late foetal or early
postnatal period. Following these two or three waves of myogenesis, the total number
of fibres is fixed. This occurs during foetal life (bovines, ovines, pigs and poultry)
or during the first postnatal month in rabbits. Contractile and metabolic differentiation
proceed by steps in parallel to myogenesis and are partially linked to each other.
In bovines and ovines, the main events occur during foetal life, whereas they occur
soon after birth in the pig, poultry and rabbit, but some plasticity remains later
in life in all species. This comparative survey shows that the cellular processes
of differentiation are comparable between species, while their timing is usually
species specific.
Key words: myogenesis / myofibre / myosin / species
Correspondence and reprints: Brigitte Picard
e-mail: picard@clermont.inra.fr
© INRA, EDP Sciences 2002