Expression, characterization, and variation of the porcine calpain 7 gene

Abstract

This study was designed to clone the porcine calpain 7 gene, CAPN7, to characterize its tissue expression, and to investigate its genetic variation. The cDNA sequence that contains a 2442 bp open reading frame encoding 813 amino acids was obtained by reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction and rapid amplification of cDNA ends methods based on in slico cloning and homologous cloning, and five introns were identified. Quantitative real-time PCR showed that CAPN7 was ubiquitously expressed in all tissues examined, and the mRNA level in muscles was low at 1–7-days-old and high from 90 to 270-days-old. In addition, two single nucleotide polymorphisms in coding sequence were identified and the polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism methods were established to detect the polymorphisms. At each site, the distribution of three genotypes is significantly different (P<0.01) in Yorkshire, Duroc, Wild boar, and Min pigs.