Abstract

Culter alburnus, one of the four most famous freshwater fishes, is a very important freshwater fishing species with high economic value in China. The present study focused on the myosin, major protein in skeletal muscles from Culter alburnus in Xingkai Lake. Two types of the gene encoding Myosin Heavy Chain (MYH), a large subunit of the myosin molecule, were cloned from fast skeletal muscle and defined as MYHa (Genbank ID JX272926) and MYHb (Gen bank ID JX402919). The full-length cDNA clones of MYHa and MYHb consisted of 6003 and 5990 bp, which encoded 1933 and 1930 amino acids, respectively. The total levels of the MYHs were significantly higher with the fish age increase. In comparison to the wild and cultured muscles, From 2 to 6 years old, MYHa gene expression of wild population was significantly lower than the cultured population (p<0.05), else MYHb gene expression of wild population was higher than cultured population. The two kinds of genotype interaction affect meat quality traits. The present study has therefore, revealed a complex pattern of expression of MYH genes in relation to developmental stage and population. Our work provided a novel myosin heavy chain gene sequence in fish biology and the results indicate that the MYH gene and the protein it encodes are important for the growth and development of fish, as well as its muscle characterization.

Keywords:

cDNA cloning, Culter alburnus in Xingkai Lake, expression, myosin heavy chain, wild and cultured population,

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