Abstract FAM134B plays a critical role in regulation of intramuscular fat(IMF) deposition. For a further understanding of the structure and function of FAM134B gene, as well as its impact on mutton (Capra hirus) quality, RT-PCR technique was adopted to amplify the FAM134B gene, during which Chuanzhong black goat was used as the experimental animal. The nucleotide and amino acid sequence was analyzed using bioinformatics tools. The expression levels of FAM134B in different tissues were detected by fluorogenic quantitative PCR. Additionally, correlation analysis between expression of FAM134B mRNA and IMF content in muscles was done. The results showed that the full length of goat FAM134B gene(GenBank accession No. KF684947.1) was 1 071 bp, and coding 356 amino acid sequence. Four N-glycosylation sites were predicted in the translated FAM134B protein, as well as more than 20 phosphorylation sites. A phylogenic tree analyse revealed that the nucleotide sequence of goat shared the highest identity with the cattle (Bos taurus) FAM134B. Fluorescence quantitative PCR analyse indicated that FAM134B expressed in heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, longissimus dorsi muscle and leg muscle, with the highest expression level in liver and the lowest expression level in spleen. Correlation analysis demonstrated that strong positive correlations were observed between expression of FAM134B mRNA and IMF content in longissimus dorsi and crureus. These results suggested that FAM134B gene might play an important role in regulation of IMF deposition in goat. This research provides a basic data for a further understanding of the function of FAM134B gene, and the role during the process of IMF metabolism as well as its mechanism of nutritional regulation in ruminant.
