Characterization and Expression Pattern of Myostatin in the Rockfish, Sebastes schlegeli

摘要

Myostatin (MSTN; also known as GDF8) is a member of the transforming growth factor P-superfamily of proteins. MSTN negatively regulates mammalian skeletal muscle growth and development by inhibiting myoblast proliferation. Mice and cattle possessing mutant MSTN alleles display a 'double muscling' phenotype characterized by extreme skeletal muscle hypertrophy and/or hyperplasia. We isolated the full-length cDNA of a novel MSTN gene from S. schlegeli muscle tissue and examined its expression pattern invarious tissues. The full-length gene (GenBank DQ423474) consists of 1941 bp with an open reading frame of 1134 bp, encoding 377 amino acids that show 62-92 amino acid similarity to other vertebrate MSTNs. The predicted protein contains a conserved proteolytic cleavage site (RXRR) and nine conserved cysteine residues at the C terminus. RT-PCR revealed that the unprocessed and prodomain myostatin mRNAs were predominantly present in muscle, with limited expression in other tissues. However, the mature myostatin mRNA was highly expressed in brain and muscle, intermediately expressed in the gills, intestine, heart, and kidney, and weakly expressed in the liver and spleen