Enhancement of porcine intramuscular fat content by overexpression of the cytosolic form of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase in skeletal muscle

Abstract

Intramuscular fat (IMF) content has been generally recognized as a desirable trait in pork meat because of its positive effect on eating quality. An effective approach to enhance IMF content in pork is the generation of transgenic pigs. In this study, we used somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) to generate cloned pigs exhibiting ectopic expression of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK-C) driven by an α-skeletal-actin gene promoter, which was specifically expressed in skeletal muscle. Using qRT-PCR and Western blot analysis, we demonstrated that PEPCK-C was functionally expressed and had a significant effect on total fatty acid content in the skeletal muscle of the transgenic pigs, while the n-6/n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) ratio showed no difference between transgenic and control pigs. Thus, genetically engineered PEPCK-Cmus pigs may be an effective solution for the production of IMF-enriched pork.