Posthatching growth and pectoralis muscle development in broiler strain chickens, bantam chickens and the reciprocal crosses between them.

Body weight, pectoralis muscle weight, pectoralis protein and DNA concentration, and plasma GH and IGF-I concentrations of broiler chicks (BrBr), bantam chicks (BaBa) and reciprocal crosses between them (BaBr and BrBa) were measured between 0 and 42 days after hatching. At hatch, body weight and pectoralis weight of the two types of chicks from broiler eggs (BrBr and BaBr) were equal to each other but greater than the two types of chicks from bantam eggs (BaBa and BrBa), which were not different from each other. BrBr chicks grew more rapidly than crossbreds and BaBa chicks grew more slowly. Weights of the reciprocal crosses (BaBr and BrBa) were markedly different at day of age, but converged by day 14. The increase in pectoralis muscle mass of BrBr chicks exceeded that of the reciprocal crosses which in turn exceeded that of BaBa chicks. The increase in pectoralis DNA content and protein content followed the same pattern. The DNA unit size, as expressed by the protein:DNA ratio, was markedly lower in pure bantam chicks from 14 to 42 days of ages, whereas the unit size did not differ between the intermediate sized reciprocal crosses and the large bodied broiler chicks. Differences in muscle mass were primarily achieved by differences in the number of DNA units although a difference in unit size was also a factor. There were no clear relationships between growth and plasma growth hormone or insulin-like growth factor I concentrations. Thus while satellite cell proliferation is primarily responsible for genotypic differences in muscle mass, the plasma growth hormone-IGF-I axis does not appear to be regulating their proliferation.