International Wool Research Institute, Faculty of Animal Science and Technology, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou 730070, China.
Gene-Marker Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Lincoln University, Lincoln 7647, New Zealand.
Genes (Basel). 2024 Aug 12;15(8):1060. doi: 10.3390/genes15081060.
Chinese Tan sheep lambs are recognised for having tight 'spring-like' curly wool when young, but this phenotype disappears with age. This wool consists of shorter, fine wool fibres (which are usually unmedullated) and heterotypic hair fibres (which are frequently medullated), which are referred to as 'halo hair'. Both the wool and hair fibres consist of α-keratin proteins embedded in a keratin-associated protein (KAP) matrix. Of these KAPs, the KAP20-1 gene (designated ) and its effect on four fibre traits (mean fibre curvature, mean fibre diameter, fibre diameter standard deviation, and coefficient of variation of fibre diameter) of Tan lambs was studied. Seven previously identified variants (, , , , , , and ) of were revealed, but the previously identified variant was not present. Of the seven variants detected, only two ( and ) were common and present at frequencies greater than 5%, and the effect of these on the fibre traits of the finer wool fibres was assessed. It was found that variant was associated with an increased mean fibre curvature in these wool fibres. This suggests that might possibly be expressed differentially in the two fibre types, which may be of future value in breeding.
中国滩羊羔羊年轻时的羊毛以紧实的“弹簧状”卷曲而闻名，但这种表型会随着年龄的增长而消失。这种羊毛由较短的细羊毛纤维（通常无髓质）和异型毛发纤维（通常有髓质）组成，被称为“晕毛”。羊毛和毛发纤维都由嵌入角蛋白相关蛋白（KAP）基质中的α-角蛋白蛋白组成。在这些 KAP 中，研究了 KAP20-1 基因（命名为 ）及其对滩羊四种纤维特性（平均纤维曲率、平均纤维直径、纤维直径标准差和纤维直径变异系数）的影响。揭示了先前鉴定的七个 变体（、、、、、和 ），但先前鉴定的变体 不存在。在检测到的七个变体中，只有两个（和 ）是常见的，出现频率大于 5%，并评估了它们对更细羊毛纤维的纤维特性的影响。发现变体 与这些羊毛纤维中平均纤维曲率的增加有关。这表明 可能在两种纤维类型中表达不同，这在未来的繁殖中可能具有重要价值。
