cDNA Cloning, Expression Analysis of Slc24a5 and Its Relationship With Melanin Deposition in Chicken / 生物化学与生物物理进展

ABSTRACT

Melanin is a kind of biopolymer, composed of a complex quinine/indole-quinone derived mixture which is produced in melanocytes from tyrosine. More than 100 genes related to melanin deposition have been found in mouse. Slc24a5 (solute carrier family 24, member 5) is a novel gene first cloned in zebrafish. And it has been confirmed that the Slc24a5 is involved in controlling the melanin deposition in zebrafish. Here the full length of the chicken slc24a5 mRNA sequence, its expression profile and a discussion of its relationship to melanin deposition in chicken were reported. Chicken Slc254a5 has a CDS of 1 269bp, predicting a protein of 423 amino acids which is about 80 amino acids shorter than in human and mouse. It has 9 exons and 8 introns and spans more than 1lkb of genome sequence. The quantitative real-time PCR confirmed that the chicken Slc24a5 was highly expressed in the eye of White Leghorn and Beijing Fatty Chickens, and in the eye, skin and muscle of Silky. The relative expression in Silky eye is more than two times that of White Leghorn. The relative expression in Silky skin is about 70 times that of White Leghorn and about 15 times that of Beijing Fatty Chickens. The relative expression in Silky muscle is about 15 times that of White Leghorn and about 3 times that of Beijing Fatty Chickens. And the expression result is in accordance with the melanocyte and melanin deposition in these tissues.