›› 2019, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (8): 2381-2389.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2019.08.023

• Genetics and Breeding • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Cloning and Expression of Corticotropin-releasing Hormone (CRH) Gene in the Reproductive Axis of Yaks (Bos grunniens)

HE Xiangdong, WANG Qin, XIA Yi, CHEN Ying, JIGE Moti, ZI Xiangdong   

  1. Key Laboratory of Animal Science of State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Southwest Minzu University, Chengdu 610041, China
  • Received:2018-12-13 Online:2019-08-20 Published:2019-08-17

Abstract:

In order to investigate the regulation of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) gene in reproduction of yak, tissue samples of hypothalamus, anterior pituitary, oviduct, ovaries and uterus were collected from 5 adult female yaks and cattle, respectively.The yak CRH gene was amplified, cloned and sequenced by RT-PCR and bioinformatics software, and phylogenetic tree was constructed.The mRNA expression in different tissues was detected by Real-time PCR.The results showed that the coding region of CRH gene in yak was 573 bp, encoding a 190 amino acid protein.The nucleotide homology of CRH gene in yak (Bos grunniens) and cattle (Bos taurus), Felis catus, Gallus gallus, Homo sapiens, Mus musculus, Rattus norvegicus and Sus scrofa was 99.8%, 43.3%, 36.1%, 46.2%, 39.0%, 38.5% and 56.4%, respectively.Phylogenetic tree results showed that yak and cattle had the closest relationship and clustered with other species, which accorded with the evolution law of species.The formula of CRH protein was C920H1503N279O263S3, the molecular weight and theoretical isoelectric point were 20 776.95 u and 10.95, respectively.CRH protein contained a high proportion of leucine (15.8%), proline (12.6%), alanine (12.1%) and arginine (10.5%).CRH protein was a hydrophilicity protein which contained a signal peptide and a transmembrane region.The secondary structure prediction results showed that alpha helix, beta turn, extended chain and random coil accounted for 41.05%, 1.05%, 8.42% and 49.48%, respectively, which was consistent with the tertiary structure analysis results.The expression of CRH gene mRNA in hypothalamus and uterus of yak was the highest and the lowest, respectively, and the expression of CRH gene mRNA in hypothalamus was significantly higher than that in other tissues (P<0.05).The expression of CRH gene mRNA in anterior pituitary, ovary and fallopian tube of yak were extremely significantly or significantly higher than that of cattle (P<0.01;P<0.05), but there was no significant difference in hypothalamus and uterus between two breeds (P>0.05).These results suggested that CRH gene played an important role in reproductive regulation of yak.

Key words: yak; cattle; CRH gene; cloning; tissue expression

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