Institute of Animal Genetics and Breeding, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China.
College of Animal Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China.
Anim Sci J. 2013 May;84(5):442-448. doi: 10.1111/asj.12057. Epub 2013 Apr 12.
The important roles of myogenic regulatory factors (MRFs) have been well addressed in the process of mammalian skeletal myogenesis, while limited research has been performed in small ruminants. Furthermore, the effects of gender on the development of skeletal muscle and MRFs expression remain unknown. In this study, we identified the caprine Myf5, Myf6, MyoD and myogenin genes and quantified their expressions at six different postnatal time points by real-time RT-PCR. The sex has a marked effect on the expression differences of Myf5, MyoD and myogenin in the five investigated skeletal muscles, while minor influence on the expression difference of Myf6 except for Semitendinosus and Quadriceps femoris tissues (P < 0.001). The histological sections of muscles revealed a constant increase of muscle fiber diameter with aging but non-significant differences between genders. We provide novel evidence for MRFs expression in age- and gender-dependent manners, which will contribute to prioritizing these genes as potential candidate genes for trait-associated study and provide a foundation for understanding the molecular control of skeletal muscle growth in goat species.
肌调节因子（MRFs）在哺乳动物骨骼肌发生过程中的重要作用已经得到了很好的研究，而在小反刍动物中的研究则相对较少。此外，性别对骨骼肌发育和 MRFs 表达的影响仍不清楚。在本研究中，我们鉴定了山羊的 Myf5、Myf6、MyoD 和 myogenin 基因，并通过实时 RT-PCR 在六个不同的出生后时间点对它们的表达进行了定量。性别的不同对五个研究的骨骼肌中 Myf5、MyoD 和 myogenin 的表达差异有显著影响，而对 Myf6 的表达差异影响较小，除了半腱肌和股四头肌组织（P < 0.001）。肌肉的组织学切片显示，随着年龄的增长，肌纤维直径不断增加，但性别之间没有显著差异。我们提供了 MRFs 表达在年龄和性别依赖方式上的新证据，这将有助于将这些基因作为与性状相关研究的潜在候选基因进行优先排序，并为理解山羊种属中骨骼肌生长的分子调控提供基础。
