Molecular characterization and expression analysis of caveolin-1 in pig tissues.

Members of the caveolin family played important roles during fundamental cellular processes, such as regulation of cell morphology, migration, and gene expression in muscle cells. In this study, caveolin-1 (Cav-1), one of the caveolins, was identified from longissimus dorsi muscle of Large Yorkshire pig and Chinese indigenous Lantang pig based on the results of mRNA differential display analysis. The deduced amino acids sequence of the porcine Cav-1 contained a caveolin domain, and was very conservative among different species. The Cav-1 mRNA was widely expressed in the eight tissues in this study, including heart, liver, kidney, encephalon, spleen, lung, longissimus dorsi muscle, and back fat, and the highest expression quantity was found in back fat of the two pig breeds. The expression quantity of porcine Cav-1 in back fat and longissimus dorsi muscle of Lantang pig was significantly higher than that of Large Yorkshire (P<0.01, and P<0.05, respectively). These results suggested that the Cav-1 might be a candidate gene for carcass traits, and might provide valuable information for understanding the mechanism of caveolae signaling in fat deposition by using the animal model of pig.