编辑MSTN半胱氨酸节基元促进两广小花猪肌肉生长

肌生长抑制素(myostatin,MSTN)是转化生长因子β(transforming growth factor-β,TGF-β)家族成员之一,是一种肌肉生长抑制因子。解除MSTN的生长抑制功能是提高畜禽肌肉产量的一种有效途径。TGF-β的半胱氨酸节结构基元(cystine knot motif)能够稳定MSTN蛋白结构,对MSTN生物学功能的发挥具有重要调控作用。本研究应用CRISRP/Cas9基因编辑技术在两广小花猪肾细胞(Liang Guang small spotted pig kidney cells,LPKCs)中对MSTN基因外显子3进行编辑,破坏了其半胱氨酸节基元,以解除MSTN对靶基因的抑制功能。将流式分选获得的混合阳性MSTN编辑LPKCs作为供体细胞进行核移植和胚胎移植,获得8头MSTN基因编辑两广小花猪仔猪,其中2头存活至10日龄,经鉴定这2头均为基因编辑杂合子,它们在构成MSNT蛋白半胱氨酸节基元的两个半胱氨残基C106和C108编码序列附近分别发生碱基的缺失与替换,导致移码突变,使C106和C108突变为其他氨基酸。MSTN基因编辑两广小花猪杂合子肩部和臀部肌肉较为发达。H&E切片分析显示,MSTN基因编辑猪肌纤维横截面积显著减少,肌纤维数量显著增多。Western Blot分析结果显示,C106和C108缺失对MSTN蛋白表达无显著性影响,但显著促进其靶基因Myf5、MyoD和Myogenin等成肌相关因子的表达。本研究获得的基因编辑猪模型没有造成MSTN表达完全缺失,可保留MSTN其他生物学功能,在促进两广小花猪肌肉生长的同时还消除了MSTN完全缺失可能对小花猪造成的潜在影响。     

Polymorphisms in the ovine myostatin gene (MSTN) and their association with growth and carcass traits in New Zealand Romney sheep

Myostatin is a regulator of myogenesis and has been implicated in the regulation of adiposity and in controlling the structure and function of tendons. Polymerase Chain Reaction Single-Stranded Conformational Polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) analysis of intron-1 was used to identify five variants (designated A-E) of the myostatin gene ( MSTN ). The effect of this genetic variation on growth and carcass traits was investigated in 517 Romney male lambs from 17 sire-lines, born on a South Island New Zealand farm. General linear mixed effect models revealed that the presence of allele A in a lamb's genotype was associated with decreased leg, loin and total yield of lean meat, whereas the presence of allele B was associated with increased loin yield and proportion loin yield (loin yield divided by total yield expressed as percentage). The effect of the number of allele copies present was investigated, and it was found that the absence of A , or the presence of two copies of B , was associated with increased mean leg yield, loin yield and total yield. Two copies of B were also associated with a decrease in proportion of shoulder yield, whereas two copies of A were associated with a decrease in proportion of loin yield. Associations with allele C were not detected. No associations of MSTN variation with birth weight, weaning weight, pre-weaning growth rate, draft age and hot carcass weight (H-W) were detected. These results suggest that variation in ovine MSTN is associated with meat production, but not birth weight or growth rate in New Zealand Romney sheep.     

Detection of myostatin gene MSTN in some goat breeds (Capra hircus)

Till now not information about myostatin MSTN gene in Egyptian goat breeds. Here we show more information about MSTN in some Egyptian goat breeds to enrich the database with new sequences for Egyptian goat breeds. Our conducted study focused on detection and identifying the MSTN gene as a candidate gene of the muscles growth trait in three goat breeds (Zaraibi, Baladi and Damascus). We found the similarity between the registered sequences with the accession numbers KY463684 for Zaraibi and KY463685 for Baladi and Chinese goat breeds of the MSTN gene deposited with international gene banks by up to 99% and some other species including sheep, cows and bull breeds with percentages of 95 to 97% and between 95 to 99%, respectively. There is also a correlation between the sequences of the registered pieces of Baladi with KY463686 and Damascus and Chinese breeds with KY441464 of MSTN deposited with international gene banks by up to 99% and some other species including sheep and bull breeds at a ratio of 99% for two pieces. Results demonstrated the deposited sequences of object are part of intron 1, exon 2 is fully sequenced with Zaraibi and Baladi breeds; the intron 1, exon 1 with Baladi breed; and the intron 2, part of exon 3 with Damascus breed. Therefore, the Egyptian goat breeds consider national wealth can be used to develop breeding and improvement programs which helps in more applicable scopes like biotechnology, genetic engineering and molecular biology with the help of bioinformatics tools.     

Effect of myostatin F94L on carcass yield in cattle

In this study, a highly significant quantitative trait locus (QTL) for meat percentage, eye muscle area (EMA) and silverside percentage was found on cattle chromosome 2 at 0-15 cM, a region containing the positional candidate gene growth differentiation factor 8 (GDF8), which has the common alias myostatin (MSTN). Loss-of-function mutations in the MSTN gene are known to cause an extreme 'double muscling' phenotype in cattle. In this study, highly significant associations of MSTN with cattle carcass traits were found using maternally inherited MSTN haplotypes from outbred Limousin and Jersey cattle in a linkage disequilibrium analysis. A previously reported transversion in MSTN (AF320998.1:g.433C>A), resulting in the amino acid substitution of phenylalanine by leucine at position 94 of the protein sequence (F94L), was the only polymorphism consistently related to increased muscling. Overall, the size of the g.433C>A additive effect on carcass traits was moderately large, with the g.433A allele found to be associated with a 5.5% increase in silverside percentage and EMA and a 2.3% increase in total meat percentage relative to the g.433C allele. The phenotypic effects of the g.433A allele were partially recessive. This study provides strong evidence that a MSTN genotype can produce an intermediate, non-double muscling phenotype, which should be of significant value for beef cattle producers.     

Single nucleotide polymorphisms of myostatin gene in Chinese domestic horses

The myostatin gene (MSTN) is a genetic determinant of skeletal muscle growth. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in MSTN are of importance due to their strong associations with horse racing performances. In this study, we screened the SNPs in MSTN gene in 514 horses from 15 Chinese horse breeds. Six SNPs (g.26 T > C, g.156 T > C, g.587A > G, g.598C > T, g.1485C > T, g.2115A > G) in MSTN gene were detected by sequencing and genotyped using PCR-RFLP method. The g.587A > G and g.598C > T residing in the 5′UTR region were novel SNPs identified by this study. The g.2115A > G which have previously been associated with racing performances were present in Chinese horse breeds, providing valuable genetic information for evaluating the potential racing performances in Chinese domestic breeds. The six SNPs together defined thirteen haplotypes, demonstrating abundant haplotype diversities in Chinese horses. Most of the haplotypes were shared among different breeds with no haplotype restricted to a specific region or a single horse breed. AMOVA analysis indicated that most of the genetic variance was attributable to differences among individuals without any significant contribution by the four geographical groups. This study will provide fundamental and instrumental genetic information for evaluating the potential racing performances of Chinese horse breeds.     

The effect of leader peptide mutations on the biological function of bovine myostatin gene

The growth of muscle fibers can be negatively regulated by bovine myostatin. The first two exons of myostatin gene code for the N-propeptide and its third exon codes for the C-polypeptide. Myostatin is secreted as a latent configuration formed by dimerization of two matured C peptides non-covalently linked with the N terminal pro-peptide. Pro-peptide has two distinct functions in guiding protein folding and regulating biological activity of myostatin. When the structure of the leader peptide is altered via mutations resulting in more tight binding with the mature peptide, myostatin function is inhibited, resulting in the changes of P21 and CDK2 expression levels which are relatedto the regulation of cell cycle. In the present study, the coding region of bMSTN (bovine myostatin) gene was amplified and mutated (A224C and G938A) through fusion PCR, and the mutated bMSTN gene (bMSTN-mut) was inserted in frame into the pEF1a-IRES-DsRed-Express2 vector and transfected into bovine fibroblast cells. The expression levels of bMSTN-mut, P21 and CDK2 (cyclin dependent kinase 2) were examined with qPCR and Western-blotting. Changes in cell cycle after transfection were also analyzed with flow cytometry. The results indicated that leader peptide mutation resulted in down-regulation of P21 expression levels and up-regulation of CDK2 expression levels. The flow cytometry results showed that the proportion of cells in the G0/G1-phase was lower and that of cells in the S-phase was higher in bMSTN-mut transfected group than that in the control group. The proliferation rate of bMSTN-mut transfected cells was also significantly higher than that of the control cells. In conclusion, the studies have shown that the pEF1a-IRES-DsRed-Express2–bMSTN-mut recombinant plasmid could effectively promote the proliferation of bovine fibroblast cells. The site-directed mutagenesis of bMSTN gene leader peptide and in vitro expression in bovine fibroblast cells could be helpful to further the studies of bMSTN in regulating bovine muscle cell growth and development.     

Prenatal diagnosis of partial trisomy 3q resulting from t(3;14) in a fetus with multiple anomalies including vermian hypoplasia

Context

Myostatin (MSTN) is a member of the TGF-β superfamily of signal transduction proteins, which plays an important role in muscular growth and lipid metabolism.

Objective

To study the association of myostatin gene polymorphisms with obesity in Chinese north Han human subjects.

Design

297 healthy and 606 over-weight/obesity Chinese north Han subjects were selected as healthy control group and overweight/obesity group, respectively. The methods of DNA Sequencing, Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) and TaqMan® probe were used to screen myostatin gene SNPs and clarify genotype in every individual.

Results

Total 11 SNPs in MSTN gene were identified by DNA sequencing and three SNPs including rs35781413 (G/A), rs3791783 (A/G) and rs3791782 (A/G) were selected for further study in total 903 samples. The results showed that the frequency of AA genotype of rs3791783 A/G SNP was significantly higher (56.4% vs. 50.8%) and the frequency GG genotype was significantly lower (3.2% vs. 6.7%) in overweight/obese patients than in normal weight subjects. A logistic regression analysis under a recessive inheritance model (AA + AG vs.GG) demonstrated that the Odd ratio for AA + AG vs.GG were 1.985 (95% CI 1.078-3.643; P = 0.029). Among three genotypes of rs3791783, the subjects with AA genotype have much more higher body weight, BMI, waist circumference, TC, TG and LDL-C than those with GG genotype.

Conclusions

Our data firstly suggest that genetic variant rs3791783 A/G in myostatin gene are associated with obesity. The A allele carriers in rs3791783 SNP have an increased susceptibility to obesity compared with the G allele carriers. Participants with AA genotype in rs3791783 SNP site will have higher risk suffered from overweight or obesity than those with GG genotype.     

Molecular characterization and differential expression of the myostatin gene in Coilia nasus

Estuarine tapertail anchovy (Coilia nasus, junior synonym C. ectenes) is a widely distributed and commercially important aquaculture species, although its growth in aquaculture settings is so slow as to pose a serious practical problem. In order to understand the molecular mechanisms of growth, we cloned the myostatin gene in C. nasus (CnMSTN) by homologous cloning methods. Its full-length cDNA is 2252 bp, with a 1125-bp open reading frame (ORF) that encodes a 374-amino acid protein. The CnMSTN protein is predicted to contain domains typical of MSTN, including a TGFb-propeptide domain and a TGFB domain. Gene expression patterns were detected by RT-qPCR. CnMSTN is expressed strongly in the muscle and brain, and comparatively lower in the gills, liver, spleen, intestine, trunk kidney and head kidney. The effects of stress on the muscle and brain MSTN levels were evaluated by RT-qPCR. CnMSTN in the muscle was positively regulated by loading and transport stress, but brain CnMSTN expression was not affected. We found NaCl could reduce the death rate caused by loading and transporting stress, and in this group, CnMSTN mRNA expression in the muscle revealed increased, but decreased in the brain. Further, in the fasting experiment, the CnMSTN mRNA revealed decrease in the muscle, on the contrary, it showed increase in the brain. Selection upon variants of the MSTN gene has shown great potential in breeding work for mammals, and our results provide the basic knowledge for breeding of C. nasus.     

肌肉生长抑制素基因在哺乳动物中的最新研究进展

肌肉生长抑制素（myostatin,MSTN）,也称为生长分化因子8（GDF8）,是转化生长因子β（TGF-β）超家族成员,主要在骨骼肌中表达,在负向调控肌细胞的生长发育中起关键作用。本文对MSTN研究的最新进展进行了综述,讨论了MSTN信号通路与其他通路之间的相互关系,重点阐述了试验条件下MSTN对肌肉发育相关基因的作用,介绍了通过基因操作或使用抗体的方法抑制MSTN的表达对于提高动物产肉量、治疗肌肉萎缩等疾病以及延缓衰老的重要意义。