Abstract：Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4α (HNF4α) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily, it plays an crucial role in liver organogenesis and hepatocyte differentiation. In order to investigate the role of HNF4α in the formation of goose fatty liver, we amplified the goose(Anser anser) HNF4α gene full-length cDNA sequence, and detected the expression levels in 8 tissues(heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, pectorale, crureus and abdominal fat) as well as the effect of overfeeding on HNF4α gene in liver by qRT-PCR. The results showed that the cDNA sequence of HNF4α gene was 1 371 bp and encoded 456 amino acids, and the amino acids had high homology with chicken(99.12%). In addition, HNF4α gene was mainly expressed in liver and kidney of goose, but it had lower expression level in other tissues. After overfeeding, the expression of HNF4α gene in liver was significantly decreased compared with the control group(P<0.05). The results indicated that the HNF4α gene might play an important role in lipid metabolism. It provides the basic dates for the further study that analysis the function of HNF4α gene during formation of geese fatty liver.
