Molecular cloning and ontogenesis expression of fatty acid transport protein-1 in yellow-feathered broilers

Fatty acid transport protein-1 (FATP-1) is one of the important transporter proteins involved in fatty acid transmembrane transport and fat deposition. To study the relationship between FATP-1 mRNA expression and fat deposition,chicken (Gallus gallus) FATP-1 sequence was first cloned by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). Tissue samples of chest muscle,leg muscle,subcutaneous fat,and ab-dominal fat were collected from six male and six female broilers each,at 22 days,29 days,and 42 days,respectively. The tissue specific-ity and ontogenesis expression pattern of the FATP-1 mRNA of yellow-feathered broilers was studied by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR),and the fat deposition laws in different tissues were also compared. A 2,488 bp cDNA sequence of chicken FATP-1 was cloned by RACE (GenBank accession no. DQ352834),including 547 bp 3′ end untranslated region (URT) and 1,941 bp open reading frame (ORF). Chicken FATP-1 encoded 646 amino acid residues,which shared 83.9% and 83.0% identity with those of human and rat,respectively. The results of quantitative PCR demonstrated a constant FATP-1 mRNA expression level in the chest muscle and subcutaneous fat of both male and female broilers at three stages,whereas the expression level of the FATP-1 mRNA in the leg mus-cle at 42 days was significantly higher than that at 22 days or 29 days. In the abdominal fat of male broilers,the gene expression signifi-cantly increased with age,whereas the female broilers showed a dramatic downregulation of FATP-1 expression in abdominal fat at 42 days. This suggested a typical tissue-and gender-specific expression pattern of chicken FATP-1,mediating the specific process of fatty acid transport or utilization in muscle and adipose tissues.