Molecular cloning of the duck MEF2C gene cDNA coding domain sequence and its expression during fetal muscle tissue development

Abstract

Myogenic enhancer transcription factor 2c (MEF2c), one of the members of the MEF2 family of transcription factors, plays an important role in mammalian muscle development. However, the role of MEF2c in avian muscle development still remains unclear. To understand the function of MEF2c in avian muscle development, we first cloned the duck MEF2c coding domain sequence (CDS) and analyzed MEF2c expression in duck muscle tissues of embryos from 10 days of incubation to 1 week after birth using real-time PCR technology. The results showed that the duck MEF2c CDS consists of 1,398 nucleotides that encode 465 amino acids. The MEF2c duck protein contains a MADS domain, a MEF2 domain and a HJURP_C domain with high homology to related proteins in other organisms. Different expression levels of MEF2c were found in skeletal, smooth and cardiac muscle. Therefore, these results indicated that duck MEF2c has two conserved domains (a MADS and a MEF2 domain), is an indispensable regulator of muscle development, and plays an important role in the development of duck muscle.