Previous studies on mammals showed that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1α(PGC-1α)played a prominent role in regulating muscle fiber type transition and composition.However,the role of PGC-1αin chicken muscle has seldom been explored.To investigate the effect of PGC-1αon chicken skeletal muscles in this study,the PGC-1αgene was overexpressed or silenced in chicken primary myoblasts by using lentivirus,and then the effects of the PGC-1αgene overexpression and knockdown on the mRNA expression profile of genes related to myofiber type specificity were examined during fiber formation.The results showed that overexpression of PGC-1αfrom proliferation to differentiation was accompanied by the up-regulated expression of Pax7,MyoD,and CnAα,which was significantly(P<0.01)increased after one day of transfection(1 I).The enhancement of MyoG,MEF2 c,and MyHC SM expression lagged,which was improved significantly(P<0.01)after four days of transfection(1 I3 D).Overexpression of PGC-1αdecreased(P<0.01)the MyHC FWM expression after four days of transfection(1 I3 D),and it had no significant impact(P>0.05)on the expression of CnB1,NFATc3,and MyHC FRM during myofiber formation.The effective silence(P<0.01)of PGC-1αby lentivirus mediating short hairpin RNA(shRNA)was detected after four days of transfection(1 I3 D)in cultures,and the lack of its function in chicken primary myoblasts significantly(P<0.01)down-regulated the expression of Pax7,MyoD,CnAα,MyoG,MEF2 c,and MyHC SM,significantly(P<0.01)up-regulated the expression of MyHC FWM,and had no significant impact(P>0.05)on the expression of CnB1,NFATc3,and MyHC FRM.These results indicated that the role of PGC-1αin regulating the fiber type specificity of chicken skeletal muscles might be similar to that in mammals,which interplayed with key genes related to myocyte differentiation and calcineurin signaling pathway.
Calcineurin（Cn or CaN） is implicated in the control of skeletal muscle fiber phenotype and hypertrophy. However, little information is available concerning the expression of Cn in chickens. In the present study, the expression of two Cn subunit genes（Cn Aα and Cn B1） was quantified by q PCR in the lateral gastrocnemius（LG, mainly composing of red fast-twitch myofibers）, the soleus（mainly composing of red slow-twitch myofibers） and the extensor digitorum longus（EDL, mainly composing of white fast-twitch myofibers） from Qingyuan partridge chickens（QY, slow-growing chicken breed） and Recessive White chickens（RW, fast-growing chicken breed） on different days（1, 8, 22, 36, 50 and 64 days post-hatching）. Although Cn Aα and Cn B1 gene expressions were variable with different trends in different skeletal muscles in the two chicken breeds during postnatal growth, it is highly muscle phenotype and breed specific. In general, the levels of Cn Aα and Cn B1 gene expressions of the soleus were lower than those of EDL and LG in both chicken breeds at the same stages. Compared between the two chicken breeds, the levels of Cn Aα gene expression of the three skeletal muscles in QY chickens were higher than those in RW chickens on days 1 and 22. However, on day 64, the levels of both Cn Aα and Cn B1 gene expressions of the three skeletal muscles were lower in QY chickens than those in RW chickens. Correlation analysis of the levels of Cn Aα and Cn B1 gene expressions of the same skeletal muscle showed that there were positive correlations for all three skeletal muscle tissues in two chicken breeds. These results provide some valuable clues to understand the role of Cn in the development of chicken skeletal muscles, with a function that may be related to meat quality.
