Study On The Relationship Of The Methylation And Expression Of FoxO1、Myf6 Gene And Meat Quality In Sheep

FoxO1 and Myf6 gene were impoetant candidate genes for meat quality. Bamei and Sunit sheep were the typical high-quality varieties in Inner Mongolia, using molecular biological to study the effects of genes on meat quality was of great significance. In this research, CpG island’methylation patterns of FoxO1 and Myf6 gene was detected in 6.12 month Bamei and Sunit sheep. Gene mRNA expression and meat quality in different parts of the muscle were measured to study the relationship of methylation percentage and mRNA expression and meat quality. The results shown as follows:The FoxO1 and Myf6 gene sequences were analyzed to predicted that the FoxO1 gene contained 1 CpG island and Myf6 gene contained 2 CpG islands. The methylation status detected by BSP method showed hypermethylation at FoxO1 gene’CpG island and hypomethylation at Myf6’ CpG island 1, the character of Myf6’CpG island 2 was moderate methylated and site specific. The overall methylation rate of Myf6’ CpG island 2 in Sunit sheep in 12 month was significantly higher than in 6 month (p<0.05); The methylation rates of 3.4 and 8 sites in the 20 CpG sites were significantly different, which needed further study.It was found that the three CpG islands’methylation level had no significant influence on mRNA expression of FoxO1 and Myf6 gene in Bamei and Sunit sheep.Methylation percentage of FoxO1 gene" CpG island and Myf6’ CpG island1 had no signifieant correlation with meat quality traits in two breeds; In triceps in Bamei sheep, the methylation percentage of Myf6’CpG island 2 had significant positive correlation with redness (a*) colours (p<0.05). It had significant negative correlation with pH1 of longissimus dorsi in Sunit sheep (p<0.05).In Bamei sheep, the mRNA expression of FoxO1 in triceps had signifieant positive correlation with redness (a*) colours and carpass net muscle percentage (p< 0.05). In Sunit sheep. the expression of FoxO1 had signifieant negative correlation with pHl in longissimus dorsi and pH2 in in triceps (p<0.05); In Bamei sheep, the mRNA expression of Myf6 in longissimus dorsi had signifieant positive correlation with net meat percentage and in triceps had signifieant positive correlation with carcass net muscle percentage (p< 0.05). It had significant negative correlation with pH1 in biceps femoris (p< 0.05). In Sunit sheep, the mRNA expression of Myf6 in longissimus dorsi had greatly signifieant positive correlation with yellowness (b*) colours (p< 0.01). In biceps femoris in Sunit sheep, the expression of Myf6 had signifieant positive correlation with redness (a*) colours and carcass weight (p<0.05), had greatly signifieant positive correlation with slaughter weight and net meat weight and net meat percentage (p<0.01), had greatly signifieant negative correlation with lightness (L*) colours and dressing percentage (p<0.01). In summary, it suggested that there were some relationship between candidate genes (FoxO1, Myf6) and meat quality in sheep, and it was possible to affect the meat quality by regulate the expression of these two genes.