Analysis of muscle fiber traits and Myh6 gene expression level in Fujian yellow rabbit
With growing demands for the diversity and quality of meat, rabbit meat is more and more popular with its special flavor. The traits of muscle fibers have a direct effect on the quality of meat, and the number, size, density, and type of muscle fibers are closely related to the meat flavor. However,...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Zhejiang University Press
2017-05-01
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| Series: | 浙江大学学报. 农业与生命科学版 |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.academax.com/doi/10.3785/j.issn.1008-9209.2016.05.111 |
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| Summary: | With growing demands for the diversity and quality of meat, rabbit meat is more and more popular with its special flavor. The traits of muscle fibers have a direct effect on the quality of meat, and the number, size, density, and type of muscle fibers are closely related to the meat flavor. However, recent studies on genes related to meat quality of rabbit are quite few, so the formation mechanism of the edibility characteristic of the muscle fibers is still unclear. Myh6, a member of the myosin heavy chain family, plays an important role in the development of muscles. What’s more, Myh6 is a marker gene in cardiac development which promotes the expansion of ventricular myocardial cell.In order to clarify the relationship of Myh6 and muscle fiber traits, correlation analysis was used to study the expression level of Myh6 in rabbit muscle fibers of longissimus dorsi muscle and leg muscle with different ages, which could also provide theoretical basis for some improvement in rabbit meat. In this study, Fujian yellow rabbits were used as experimental animals, and their myofiber traits of longissimus dorsi muscle and leg muscles at different development stages were evaluated by a frozen section technique. Meanwhile, expression levels of Myh6 gene of Fujian yellow rabbit at different development stages were analyzed by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).The results showed that the density of white muscle fibers was significantly higher than that of red muscle fibers and intermediate muscle fibers at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 weeks old; and the area of white muscle fibers was significantly greater than that of red muscle fibers. The descending order for the long and short diameters of muscle fibers of legs and backs was white muscle fibers, intermediate muscle fibers and red muscle fibers. The inverse relationship between the density and area of muscle fibers was that the density of muscle fibers decreased with the increase of muscle fiber area. The density of muscle fibers had an obviously decreasing trend from 2 to 6 weeks old. In the whole, with the age increasing, the density decreased but not significant. There was no significant difference between long and short diameters of muscle fibers, and both long and short diameters of the different muscle fibers increased gradually with the age increasing, although the trend was very obvious before 6 weeks old, but insignificant after 6 weeks old.The results also showed that the expression level of Myh6 first increased and then decreased in longissimus dorsi muscles and leg muscles of bucks and does, which showed the highest expression level at 4 weeks old in does and 6 weeks old in bucks. Furthermore, there is no difference in the change tendency between the expression level of Myh6 gene and the variation of area, long and short diameters of muscle fibers. Above all, it can be concluded that the development of muscle fibers is related to Myh6 gene. |
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| ISSN: | 1008-9209 2097-5155 |