Daniele Colombi

• PhD Student at University of Perugia

Among the Italian autochthonous beef cattle breeds, Marchigiana is particularly important in terms of census and production. In this breed, a SNP inactivating the myostatin gene leads to muscular hypertrophy in the individuals homozygous for the mutated allele while heterozygous individuals have an increased muscle development. The impact of this m...

Climate change is a major concern for the near future and for livestock breeding. Cattle breeding, due to its greenhouse gas emissions, is one of the most implicated industries. Consequently, the main future goals are to breed animals resilient to climate change, with the aim of lowering the livestock impact on the environment and selecting animals...

Italy has a long history in beef production, with local breeds such as Marchigiana, Chianina, Romagnola, Maremmana, and Podolica which produce high-quality meat. Selection has improved meat production, precocity, growth ability and muscle development, but the genetic determinism of such traits is mostly unknown. Using 33K SNPs-data from young bulls...

Marchigiana cattle breed is an Italian local breed specialised for beef production. A double muscle phenotype occurs in this breed whose causative mutation (G>T) has been observed in MSTN gene, resulting in a GG normal genotype, a GT heterozygous one with an enhanced muscle development, and a TT hypertrophic genotype. Although the TT genotype is un...

Introduction: The Italian peninsula is in the center of the Mediterranean area, and historically it has been a hub for numerous human populations, cultures, and also animal species that enriched the hosted biodiversity. Horses are no exception to this phenomenon, with the peculiarity that the gene pool has been impacted by warfare and subsequent “c...