Fig. 2.

Fibre proportions, MSTN gene expression, Mitochondrial abundance and CoQ₁₀content of immortalised equine myotubes: (A–D) Phenotypes compared among three MSTN genotype cell lines, CC/II (white); CT/IN (grey) and TT/NN (black). (A) qPCR was used to measure gene expression levels of: MYH7, MYH2 and MYH1 inferring MHC isoforms and interpreted as Type I, Type IIA and Type IIX fibres, respectively, expressed as relative percentage of total MHC gene expression. (B) MSTN gene expression was measured by qPCR, normalised to HPRT using the ΔΔCt method. (C) Mitochondrial abundance determined by the activity of citrate synthase measured spectrophotometrically, expressed as nmol/min/mg of muscle protein. (D) NADH cytochrome c oxidoreductase (Complex I + III) activity, as an indirect measure of CoQ (ubiquinone), measured spectrophotometrically and expressed as nmol/min/mg of muscle protein, normalised to citrate synthase activity. – (plain bars) and + CoQ₁₀ (5 μM for 24 h) treated (dotted bars) samples, were analysed. (A–D) Results presented with mean ± SEM (N = 3 per genotype, performed in triplicate technical replicates), p-values where shown indicate significance as measured by; a two-way (A, D) or one-way (B, C) ANOVA with a Tukeys multiple comparisons test * = p ≤ 0.05, ** = p ≤ 0.01, *** = p ≤ 0.001.