Abstract:

The objective of this study was to clone pig Tektin4 gene and analyze the tempospatial expression patterns in organs or tissues of Meishan pigs. Using RACE, Tektin4 cDNA was cloned and bioinformatics analysis was performed. The expression of Tektin4 mRNA in tissues and organs of 150-day-old Meishan boar and sow were detected by semi-quantitative methods.The expression pattern of Tektin4 in the testis of 2-, 30- , 60-, 90- and 150-day-old Meishan boars were analyzed by Real-time PCR. Sperm in cauda epididymal of Meishan boars at different development stages were counted. The results showed pig Tektin4 cDNA was 1 500 bp, encoding 447 amino acids, which had TEKTIN family conservative domain of four Coiled-coils. Between Helix2A and Helix2B spirals, the characterized sequences RPNVELCRD for TEKTIN family were present. Pig Tektin4 amino acids sequence showed 89% identity with cattle and horse and were in the same cluster by phylogenetic analysis, and it had the lowest similarity (62%) and the longest evolution distance between pig and tropical xenopus. Tektin4 expressed highly in testis and weakly in uterine horn and oviduct of sow and pituitary of boar. It began to express in testis on 60 days, which paralleled with emergency of sperm with complete shape in cauda epididymal. The expression level in 150 days testis was higher significantly (P<0.01) than those in other days testis. It implied that Tektin4 has the function of sperm tail structural protein, which may be involved in structure of cilia of some organs or tissues.

Key words:  Meishan pigs, Tektin4, spermatogenesis, flagellum