Molecular characterization, expression profile, and association study with meat quality traits of porcine PFKM gene

Glycolytic potential is a hot aspect to meat quality research in recent years. Phosphofructokinase, muscle type (PFKM), is a key regulatory enzyme used to catalyze the irreversible conversion of fructose-6-phosphate to fructose-1,6-bisphosphate in glycolysis. The present study was designed to investigate the association of PFKM SNP and meat quality traits in pigs. In this study, the 2,864-bp full-length cDNA sequence of the porcine PFKM gene was obtained, which contained 30 bp of 5' UTR, 2,343 bp of coding region, and 491 bp of 3' UTR. The porcine PFKM mRNA was predominantly expressed in skeletal muscle and heart. One single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) T129C in exon 13 of PFKM gene was detected, with its allele frequencies significantly different between Chinese indigenous pig breed and Western pig breeds. The SNP was significantly associated with meat color value (m. biceps femoris), meat marbling (m. longissimus dorsi), meat marbling (m. biceps femoris), intramuscular fat (m. longissimus dorsi) (P<0.01), and water moisture (m. longissimus dorsi) in the Large White×Meishan F2 population. These results laid a foundation for further investigations on the detailed physiological function of porcine PFKM gene.