Characterization of MRF genes and their tissue distributions and analysis of the effects of starvation and refeeding on the expression of these genes in Acipenser dabryanus muscle.

Abstract The purpose of the study was to clone the sequences of myogenic regulatory factors in Acipenser dabryanus and explore the changes in their expression during starvation and refeeding in A. dabryanus muscle. One hundred twenty fish (60.532 ± 0.284 g) were randomly assigned to four groups (fasted for 0, 3, 7 or 14 d and then refed for 14 d). Our predictions showed that the coding sequences of myod1, myf5, myog and myf6 in A. dabryanus encoded 275, 248, 248 and 243 amino acids, respectively, and the expression of the four genes was the highest in muscle. During fasting, the expression of myod1 in muscle was significantly decreased in the 14 d group. The expressions of myf5 and myf6 were increased significantly at first and then decreased with prolonged starvation time. The expression of myog in the 14 d group w as significantly decreased compared with other groups (P