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One of the most important negative regulator of muscle grow in mammalians is myostatin. Some mutations in myostatin gene (MSTN) can decrease the effect of protein and play role in meat quality of sheep. Therefore, in genome selection, knowledge of MSTN gene structure is very important. We investigated the polymorphism of the MSTN gene and its influence on body parameters in Russian sheep breed Dzhalginsky Merino. To detect alleles, we use NimbleGen sequencing technolog). In this breed, we found 20 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). That is SNP in promoter: с.-1866, с.-1404, с.-1401, с.-1213, с.-1128, с.-958, с.-783; 5'UTR: с.-40; exon I: с.101; intron 1-2: c.373+18, c.373+241, c.373+243, c.373+259, c.373+563; intron 2-3: с.747+164, с.747+309, с.748-810, с.748-229G>A, с.748-475; 3'UTR: с.*1232. Three of detected SNP (c.-1128, c.-958, c.-40) have a negative effect on the body parameters – decrease weight, height and other. Other three SNP (c.101, c.373+18, с.*1232) have not significant influence on this parameters. Our investigation is a base of next research of affection of different MSTN gene alleles on meat quality and can be used to prepare a PCR test-system for genomic selection.

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) plays an important role in the growth and development of muscle tissue in animals. Research into the structure of IGF1 in sheep may provide important information for genomic marker assisted selection used to increase meat production. We investigated the structure of the IGF1 gene and the effect of polymorphisms on lifetime meat productivity performance in the Russian Soviet Merino sheep breed. Alleles were detected in 15 rams using NimbleGen sequencing technology by Roche (USA). 18 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were found in this breed. Only one SNP – c.-81T>C – was found in the coding region. All other SNPs were located in introns 5’UTR and 3’UTR. The c.-5363C>T, c.-5188G>C, c.-5186G>A and c.-4088G>A polymorphisms, presented together in two alleles of the gene, correlate with a high live weight in a heterozygous state. The synonymous substitution of c.81T>C in the exon was not found to have any influence on the analyzed meat production parameters. One of the detected SNPs – c.-91A>C – had a positive correlation with weight, height, croup parameters and other attributes in rams.