College of Animal Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China.
College of Veterinary Medicine, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China.
PLoS One. 2020 Dec 22;15(12):e0243507. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243507. eCollection 2020.
Mature hair follicles represent an important stage of hair follicle development, which determines the stability of hair follicle structure and its ability to enter the hair cycle. Here, we used weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to identify hub genes of mature skin and hair follicles in Inner Mongolian cashmere goats.
We used transcriptome sequencing data for the skin of Inner Mongolian cashmere goats from fetal days 45-135 days, and divided the co expressed genes into different modules by WGCNA. Characteristic values were used to screen out modules that were highly expressed in mature skin follicles. Module hub genes were then selected based on the correlation coefficients between the gene and module eigenvalue, gene connectivity, and Gene Ontology (GO)/Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis. The results were confirmed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).
Ten modules were successfully defined, of which one, with a total of 3166 genes, was selected as a specific module through sample and gene expression pattern analyses. A total of 584 candidate hub genes in the module were screened by the correlation coefficients between the genes and module eigenvalue and gene connectivity. Finally, GO/KEGG functional enrichment analyses detected WNT10A as a key gene in the development and maturation of skin hair follicles in fetal Inner Mongolian cashmere goats. qPCR showed that the expression trends of 13 genes from seven fetal skin samples were consistent with the sequencing results, indicating that the sequencing results were reliable.n.
成熟的毛囊代表毛囊发育的一个重要阶段，决定了毛囊结构的稳定性及其进入毛发周期的能力。在这里，我们使用加权基因共表达网络分析（WGCNA）来鉴定内蒙古绒山羊成熟皮肤和毛囊的枢纽基因。
我们使用了来自内蒙古绒山羊胎儿 45-135 天的皮肤转录组测序数据，通过 WGCNA 将共表达基因分为不同的模块。特征值用于筛选在成熟皮肤毛囊中高表达的模块。然后根据基因与模块特征值、基因连通性和基因本体论（GO）/京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）富集分析之间的相关系数选择模块枢纽基因。结果通过定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）进行验证。
成功定义了 10 个模块，其中一个模块，共有 3166 个基因，通过样本和基因表达模式分析被选为特定模块。通过基因与模块特征值和基因连通性之间的相关系数筛选出该模块中的 584 个候选枢纽基因。最后，GO/KEGG 功能富集分析检测到 WNT10A 是内蒙古绒山羊胎儿皮肤毛囊发育和成熟的关键基因。qPCR 显示，来自七个胎儿皮肤样本的 13 个基因的表达趋势与测序结果一致，表明测序结果可靠。
