Association of leptin mRNA expression with meat quality trait in Tianfu black rabbits

Leptin is a hormone synthesized and secreted primarily in adipocyte which can help to regulate energy balance. In this experiment, three tissue samples of Tianfu black rabbits at four growing periods were selected. The expression levels of leptin gene in different tissues were detected by real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. The correlation analysis showed that the correlation coefficient between the expression levels of leptin gene in perirenal fat and intramuscular fat content in 84-day-old male rabbits was 0.73 (p < 0.05); the correlation coefficients between the expression levels of leptin gene in left biceps femoris and intramuscular fat and 24-hour pH in 84-day-old male rabbits were 0.95 (p < 0.01) and 0.85 (p < 0.05), respectively. Besides, the correlation coefficient between the expression levels of leptin gene in male left biceps femoris and cooked meat rate was 0.83 (p < 0.05). According to the analysis results, we inferred the expression levels of leptin gene in Tianfu black rabbits can influence meat quality and the meat quality of high expression levels of leptin gene in Tianfu black rabbits is better. These results revealed the leptin gene may be one of the important candidate genes for meat quality traits of molecular markers.