Abstract：For investigated the expression level of adipocyte fatty acid binding protein gene (FABP4) at different stages of sheep longissimus muscle, in this paper, the cDNA of sheep(Ovis aries) adipocyte fatty acid binding protein gene (FABP4 ) was cloned by the method of RT-PCR using designed primer pairs of Ff and Fr according to the FABP4 gene cDNA conservative region. The putative protein spatial structure of FABP4 was analyzed by biology software. Additionally, the expression of FABP4 in sheep longissimus muscle and the correlation between FABP4 expressions of longissimus muscle and intramuscular fat contents at different days were tested by real time RT-PCR. The results showed that the sequence of cDNA of sheep FABP4 was 464 bp containing a 399 bp of open reading frame which encoded 132 amino acids and the amino acid of FABP4 was conserved in evolution, and the FABP4 protein was assembled as a barrel conformation by two α helixes and ten β folds. The real time RT-PCR revealed that expressions of FABP4 in longissimus muscle from 160 and 200-day's sheep were higher than those from 90-day's (P<0.05), expectively. The expression of FABP4 longissimus muscle at different days was positive correlated with longissimus muscle intramuscular fat contents (R2=0.7196, P<0.01). The result indicated that regulated the expression of FABP4 in sheep longissimus muscle is a potential approach for improving sheep meat quality traits.
