How genes can beef up lamb chops

By LIAM DANN

New Zealand scientists have made a breakthrough in the search for meatier lamb chops.

Scientists at Otago University's Molecular Biology Unit have located the specific part of a chromosome containing DNA that will make chops 10 per cent meatier.

The inherited muscling trait is caused by the Carwell gene which was first found in an Australian sheep.

It is responsible for generating about 10 per cent extra muscle mass in the rib-eye area of the sheep.

Semen containing the gene was first used to inseminate LandCorp Farming ewes in 1996.

At that time scientists had no idea where it was located on the 26 pairs of chromosomes that make up a sheep, said senior research associate Dr Robert McLaren.

Dr McLaren's team has now narrowed the hunt for the desired DNA strand down to about 700,000 units.

"It sounds like a lot but you have to remember we started out with more than 150 million," he said.

The project is being funded by agricultural research company Ovita using the LandCorp flock.

Ovita hopes the technology will be ready for marketing within two years.

This was not an engineered gene, Dr McLaren said. It was naturally occurring and had the advantage of bulking sheep up without reducing the tenderness of the meat.

Another bulking gene called Callipyge - Greek for beautiful buttocks - has already been isolated in the US but it makes the meat tough.

The aim now was to develop a simple test that would allow farmers to detect the gene in their flock, Dr McLaren said.

He was optimistic that the exact DNA strand would be identified within a year.

"With science you always need a little bit of luck," he said. If the strand is not found, the research could still provide farmers with an effective test for the gene.

The project team is already successfully testing the LandCorp flock. But so far the tests were not that accurate and relied on a knowledge of the sheep's parenting history, Dr McLaren said.

If the precise DNA strand is found, any flock of any origin or breed could be tested.