MyoD Is a Novel Activator of Porcine FIT1 Gene by Interacting with the Canonical E-Box Element during Myogenesis

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Chi Yan²  Xiaoliang Xia²  Junxian He¹  Zhuqing Ren²  Dequan Xu²  Yuanzhu Xiong²  Bo Zuo² 

[1] Yuguan Agricultural Inc., Shuining 629208, China; E-Mail:;Key Laboratory of Swine Genetics and Breeding of the Ministry of Agriculture, College of Animal Sciences & Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China; E-Mails:

关键词: porcine FIT1 gene regulation;    C2C12 myotube;    E-box;    MyoD1;    ChIP;    muscle;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms161025014

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Fat-induced transcript 1 (FIT1/FITM1) gene is a member of the conserved gene family important for triglyceride-rich lipid droplet accumulation. FIT1 gene displays a similar muscle-specific expression across pigs, mice, and humans. Thus pigs can act as a useful model of many human diseases resulting from misexpression of FIT1 gene. Triglyceride content in skeletal muscle plays a key role in pork meat quality and flavors. An insertion/deletion mutation in porcine FIT1 coding region shows a high correlation with a series of fat traits. To gain better knowledge of the potential role of FIT1 gene in human diseases and the correlations with pork meat quality, our attention is given to the region upstream of the porcine FIT1 coding sequence. We cloned ~1 kb of the 5′-flanking region of porcine FIT1 gene to define the role of this sequence in modulating the myogenic expression. A canonical E-box element that activated porcine FIT1 promoter activity during myogenesis was identified. Further analysis demonstrated that promoter activity was induced by overexpression of MyoD1, which bound to this canonical E-box during C2C12 differentiation. This is the first evidence that FIT1 as the direct novel target of MyoD is involved in muscle development.

【 授权许可】

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