Expression of Muscle Fat-Related Genes in Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio)

Aseel Radhi

Authors

Radhi et al,. 2025 Animal and Fish Resource Department

Keywords:

ankrd10a, Common carp, fat content, fjx1, gene expression, muscle tanc2.

Abstract

The fat content of muscle tissue is considered an important phenotypic trait in fish and thus affects the nutritional value and commercial quality of the fish. Therefore, the current research aims to identify the genes responsible and associated with the fat content of common carp muscles using reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) for the fjx1, tanc2, and ankrd10a, along with an internal control gene 18s rRNA gene. Furthermore, it will also evaluate the fat content of muscles using samples from the dorsal abdominal muscle regions to compare with the gene expression of the studied genes. The current study showed that the expression of the three genes (fjx1, tanc2 and ankrd10a) are likely to be associated with the fat content of abdominal muscles in fish (MFdo), which play an important role in fat metabolism. RNA concentration extracted from the samples ranged from 74-124 ng/µL, with a purity of 1.65-1.96 for all the samples. The 18s rRNA gene was used as a reference or control gene. Threshold cycle (CT) values were used to measure gene expression. The results showed the highest gene expression for the Tanc2 gene, reaching 14.6, and the lowest value for the ankrd10a gene, reaching 6.6 in fish with high fat content compared to fish with low fat content. This research may provide insights into the complex genetic basis of fat metabolism and accumulation in fish muscles, these results will eventually help develop breeding strategies for improving flesh quality in common carp.

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