The emopamil binding protein (EBP) is an important enzyme participating in the final steps of cholesterol biosynthesis in mammals. A predictive gene EBP-like, which encodes the protein with a high identity to human EBP, was found in chicken genome. No regulatory mechanisms and biological functions of EBP-like have been characterized in chickens. In the present study, the coding sequence of EBP-like was cloned, the phylogenetic trees of EBP/EBP-like were constructed and the genomic synteny of EBP-like was analyzed. The regulatory mechanism of EBP-like were explored with in vivo and in vitro experiments. The biological functions of EBP-like in liver cholesterol biosynthetic were examined by using gain- or loss-of-function strategies. The results showed that chicken EBP-like gene was originated from a common ancestral with Japanese quail EBP gene, and was relatively conservative with EBP gene among different species. The EBP-like gene was highly expressed in liver, its expression level was significantly increased in peak-laying stage, and was upregulated by estrogen. Inhibition of the EBP-like mRNA expression could restrain the expressions of EBP-like downstream genes (SC5D, DHCR24, and DHCR7) in the cholesterol synthetic pathway, therefore downregulate the liver intracellular T-CHO level. In conclusion, as substitute of EBP gene in chickens, EBP-like plays a vital role in the process of chicken liver cholesterol synthesis. This research provides a basis for revealing the molecular regulatory mechanism of cholesterol synthesis in birds, contributes insights into the improvement of the growth and development, laying performance and egg quality in poultry.

emopamil 结合蛋白 (EBP) 是参与哺乳动物胆固醇生物合成最后步骤的重要酶。预测基因类EBP在鸡基因组中发现了编码与人类 EBP 高度同一性的蛋白质。没有调节机制和生物学功能类EBP已在鸡身上得到表征。在本研究中，编码序列类EBP克隆了EBP/EBP-like的系统发育树，并进行了基因组同线性类EBP被分析了。监管机制类EBP被探索过体内和体外实验。的生物学功能类EBP通过使用功能获得或丧失的策略来检查肝脏胆固醇生物合成的变化。结果表明，鸡类EBP基因源自与日本鹌鹑的共同祖先电子血压计基因，并且相对保守电子血压计不同物种之间的基因。这类EBP该基因在肝脏中高表达，在产蛋高峰期表达量显着升高，并受雌激素上调。抑制类EBPmRNA表达可以抑制类EBP下游基因（SC5D,DHCR24， 和DHCR7）在胆固醇合成途径中，因此下调肝细胞内T-CHO水平。总之，作为替代电子血压计鸡的基因，类EBP在鸡肝胆固醇合成过程中起着至关重要的作用。该研究为揭示禽类胆固醇合成的分子调控机制提供了基础，为提高禽类生长发育、产蛋性能和蛋品质提供了新的见解。