Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2024, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (4): 1551-1564.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2024.04.019

• ANIMAL GENETICS AND BREEDING • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Identification and Tissue Expression Analysis of the Sheep MYL Gene Family

YANG Yang1, YU Qian1, LIU Yucheng1, YANG Hua1, ZHAO Zhuo1, WANG Limin1, ZHOU Ping1, YANG Qingyong1,2*, DAI Rong1*   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Sheep Genetic Improvement and Healthy Production, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural and Reclamation Science, Shihezi 832000, China;
    2. College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
  • Received:2023-10-25 Online:2024-04-23 Published:2024-04-26

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to understand the molecular evolutionary relationships and expression level of the MYL gene family in sheep. In this study, the bioinformatics methods were utilized to identify and analyze the MYL gene family in sheep. The tissue samples were collected from 3 adult males of Junken white meat sheep, Xinjiang fine-wool sheep and Hu sheep, respectively. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression level of MYL1, MYL6B, and MYLPF genes in various tissue of Junken white meat sheep, Xinjiang fine-wool sheep and Hu sheep. The results showed that 12 MYL gene family members were located on 9 different chromosomes. They encoded hydrophilic and varying lengths proteins consisting of 147-211 amino acids. These proteins lacked signal peptides and transmembrane domains and predominantly exhibited α-helices as the secondary structure. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that MYLs were divided into 3 groups, and the members located in the same group had similar gene structures, conserved domains and motif distributions. Collinearity analysis indicated that MYL2 had segmental duplications with MYL10 and MYLPF, and experienced strong purifying selection. Protein-protein interaction network analysis revealed interactions between MYH10 and other members. Tissue expression profile analysis showed that the expression patterns of MYL genes had significant differences. The MYL1, MYL2, MYL6B, and MYLPF displayed high expression levels in skeletal muscle tissue. The results of gene cloning and sequencing showed that the full-length CDS of the target gene was amplified. The expression levels of MYL1, MYL6B and MYLPF in muscle tissues of Junken white meat sheep were significantly higher than those in other tissues (P < 0.000 1). And the 3 genes were dominant expressions in skeletal muscles of Junken white meat sheep than those in Hu sheep and Fine-wool sheep (P < 0.000 1). The results of the study provide valuable insights for further investigation into the functionality of the MYL gene family in sheep and the improvement of sheep meat performance traits.

Key words: sheep, MYL, gene family, bioinformatics analysis, gene expression

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