Fig. 8. Quantification of myosin heavy chain (MHC) and actin mRNAs by real-time PCR. (A) Deep abdominal muscles exclusively expressed fast MHC and significantly lower levels of actin. (B) Fast cutter claw muscles predominantly expressed fast MHC, but variable amounts of S₁ MHC were also detected. Actin expression was lower but not significantly different from the levels of fast MHC expression. (C) Crusher muscles expressed significantly more S₁ MHC than fast MHC. Actin expression was significantly higher than MHC expression in the slow muscles. Differences were analyzed by ANOVA of log-transformed values of copy number per mg of tissue. A Bonferroni post-hoc test was used to determine which means were different from one another (represented by different uppercase letters). Values are means ± S.D. (N=10 samples).