The aim of this study was to clone KLF6 gene of Tibetan chicken, clarify its temporal-spatial expression characteristics, and build the correlation between the expression level of KLF6 gene and IMF content in different developmental stages. RT-PCR was used to clone Tibetan chicken KLF6 gene, qPCR was used to detect the expression level of KLF6 gene in different tissues and developmental stages. The sequence of KLF6 gene was 919 bp including a complete 852 bp CDS region. The gene was highest expression in lung tissues, which was significantly higher than in other tissues (p < 0.01). In male Tibetan chicken breast muscle the levels of KLF6 mRNA were negatively related to IMF content (r=-0.097, p > 0.05), while in females they were positively correlated (r = 0.077, p > 0.05). At the age of 119-210 days, the expression of KLF6 mRNA in the male chicken leg muscles was highly positively correlated (r = 0.506, p < 0.01), but negatively correlated in the female chicken leg muscles (r=-0.198, p > 0.05). The expression level of KLF6 in breast muscle decreased gradually with the increasing age, while in leg muscle the expression level increased firstly and then descended with the increasing age.
Keywords: KLF6; Tibetan chicken; intramuscular fat content; temporal expression; tissue expression.