Meeting Abstract
Myostatin (MSTN), also known as growth and differentiation factor 8 (GDF-8), and growth differentiation factor 11 (GDF11) are thought to have generated as result of gene duplication from an ancestral gene. In vertebrate, MSTN is expressed primarily in skeletal muscle inhibiting muscle differentiation and growth and GDF 11 is involved in development of the axial skeleton. In this study, cDNA sequence encoding a homolog of GDF8 and GDF11 (Had-MSTN/GDF 11) was isolated from abalone, Haliotis discus hannai. Its 2,605 bp sequence harbors an ORF (1,356 bp) encoding a protein with 451 amino acid residues. Amino acid sequence similarity analysis showed that Had-MSTN/GDF 11 exhibits the highest similarity to MSTN from Mytilus chilensis and it showed typical primary structure including a conserved RXXR proteolytic cleavage site and nine cysteine residues in the C-terminus. Although major production sites for Had-MSTN/GDF 11 were heart, its expression was also detected in other tissues including foot muscle, adductor muscle and hepatopancreas. Knockdown experiment of Had-MSTN/GDF gene by the injection of long dsRNA demonstrated that MSTN-like gene is important role in regulation of muscular growth and development.
