Li Bei, He Xiaolong, Zhao Yiping, Bai Dongyi, Shiraigo Wunierfu, Zhao Qinan, Manglai Dugarjaviin
College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Huhhot, 010018 People's Republic of China.
Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences, Huhhot, 010031 People's Republic of China.
Hereditas. 2017 Sep 29;155:13. doi: 10.1186/s41065-017-0048-y. eCollection 2018.
Studies on the molecular genetics of horse skin pigmentation have typically focused on very few genes and proteins. In this study, we used Illumina sequencing to determine the global gene expression profiles in horses with white-colored coats and those with black-colored coats, with the goal of identifying novel genes that could regulate horse coat color.
Genes encoding ribosomal-associated proteins were highly expressed in horse skin. We found a total of 231 unigenes that were differentially expressed between horses with white coats and horses with black coats; 119 were down-regulated, and 112 were up-regulated. Many of the up-regulated genes in black horses, such as genes related to tyrosine metabolism, may directly regulate dark coat color. Keratin genes, MIA family genes, fatty acid-related genes, and melanoma-associated genes were also differentially regulated, which suggests that they may play important roles in coat color formation.
These findings show that the transcription profiles from white and black horse skin provide useful information to understand the genetics underlying the control of skin melanin synthesis in horses, which may enhance our knowledge of human skin diseases, such as melanoma and albinism.
关于马皮肤色素沉着的分子遗传学研究通常只聚焦于极少数的基因和蛋白质。在本研究中，我们使用Illumina测序技术来确定白色被毛马和黑色被毛马的整体基因表达谱，目的是识别出可能调控马被毛颜色的新基因。
编码核糖体相关蛋白的基因在马皮肤中高度表达。我们总共发现了231个单基因在白色被毛马和黑色被毛马之间存在差异表达；其中119个下调，112个上调。黑马中许多上调基因，比如与酪氨酸代谢相关的基因，可能直接调控深色被毛颜色。角蛋白基因、MIA家族基因、脂肪酸相关基因和黑色素瘤相关基因也受到差异调控，这表明它们可能在被毛颜色形成中发挥重要作用。
这些发现表明，白色和黑色马皮肤的转录谱为理解马皮肤黑色素合成调控的遗传学提供了有用信息，这可能增进我们对人类皮肤疾病（如黑色素瘤和白化病）的了解。
