| Summary: | <i>Prox1</i> is involved in muscle fiber conversion, adult-onset obesity, and type 2 diabetes. However, information regarding porcine <i>Prox1</i> and its relationship with meat quality traits is still unknown. In this study, we characterized the full-length cDNA and proximal promoter of two transcript variants of porcine <i>Prox1</i>. Moreover, <i>Prox1</i> was expressed abundantly in the skeletal muscle and its expression was higher in the soleus muscle than that in the biceps femoris muscle. Its expression pattern in the high and low meat color (redness) value <i>a</i>* groups was similar to that of <i>myoglobin</i> and <i>MyHC I</i>, but opposed to that of <i>MyHC IIB</i>. Importantly, there was a significant positive correlation between <i>Prox1</i> expression and meat color (redness) value <i>a</i>* (r = 0.3845, <i>p</i> = 0.0394), and a significant negative correlation between <i>Prox1</i> expression and drip loss (r = −0.4204, <i>p</i> = 0.0232), as well as the ratio of <i>MyHC IIB</i> to <i>MyHC I</i> expression (r = −0.3871, <i>p</i> = 0.0380). In addition, we found that the polymorphisms of three closely linked SNPs in <i>Prox1</i> promoter 1 were significantly associated with pH<sub>24h</sub> in a pig population. Taken together, our data provide valuable insights into the characteristics of porcine <i>Prox1</i> and indicate that <i>Prox1</i> is a promising candidate gene affecting meat quality traits.
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