Vet World   Vol.18   August-2025  Article - 33 

ACTA1 gene regulation in livestock: A multidimensional review on muscle development, meat quality, and genetic applications

Background and Aim: The skeletal muscle α-actin gene (ACTA1) plays a pivotal role in muscle contraction, structural integrity, and overall develop­ment of skeletal muscle tissue in livestock. This review explores the complex regulatory mechanisms of ACTA1 expression and its direct impact on meat quality, animal performance, and production efficiency. Nutritional inputs, environmental stressors, hormonal signaling, and genetic factors collectively influence ACTA1 activity at the transcriptional, translational, and epigenetic levels. High-protein diets rich in branched-chain amino acids, particularly leucine, stimulate the mechanistic target of rapamycin pathway and enhance ACTA1-mediated muscle growth. Similarly, micronutrients such as zinc and sele­nium function as antioxidants, stabilizing ACTA1 expression under oxidative stress conditions. The review also delves into the role of ACTA1 polymorphisms in modulating muscle fiber type composition, particularly the balance between type I and type II fibers, which significantly affects meat tenderness, fat content, and endurance capacity. Genome-wide association studies, marker-assisted selection (MAS), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-associated pro­tein 9-based genome editing provide promising avenues for optimizing ACTA1 expression in livestock breeding programs. Moreover, ACTA1 dysregulation or mutation is linked to several congenital myopathies, underscoring its diagnostic and therapeutic relevance in veterinary pathology. Biotechnological interventions targeting ACTA1 expression present immense potential for improving muscle mass, carcass traits, and feed efficiency, thereby supporting global food security. Future strategies combining nutrigenomics, precision livestock farming, and artificial intelligence could enable tailored breeding and management approaches for sustainable meat production. Ethical and environmental considerations will be critical as gene editing technologies move toward wider application. In summary, ACTA1 represents a cornerstone of muscle physiol­ogy in livestock, and its integrative regulation across nutrition, genetics, and environment offers vast potential for advancing meat science, animal health, and agricultural productivity.

Keywords: ACTA1, genetic diversity, livestock, meat quality, skeletal muscle.

How to cite this article: Ayuti SR, Shin S, Kim EJ, Lamid M, Warsito SH, Al Arif MA, Lokapirnasari WP, Rosyada ZNA, Khairullah AR, Akmal M, Ritonga MZ, Rimayanti R, and Delima M (2025) ACTA1 gene regulation in livestock: A multidimensional review on muscle development, meat quality, and genetic applications, Veterinary World, 18(8): 2520-2541.

Received: 11-05-2025   Accepted: 28-07-2025   Published online: 30-08-2025

Corresponding author: Mirni Lamid    E-mail: mirnylamid@fkh.unair.ac.id

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2025.2520-2541

Copyright: Ayuti, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.