Zhou Huitong, Bai Lingrong, Li Shaobin, Li Wenhao, Wang Jiqing, Tao Jinzhong, Hickford Jon G H
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.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Nov 11;14(22):3228. doi: 10.3390/ani14223228.
Wool (sheep) and cashmere (goat) fibres have unique biological, physical, and chemical properties and these fibres are becoming more important as the demand for natural products increases. However, these complex protein fibres are at times compromised by natural variability in their properties, and this can impact their use and value. Genetic improvement via selection and breeding can partly overcome this problem, enabling the farming of sheep and goats that produce more desirable fibre. This review explores the challenges in improving wool and cashmere fibre characteristics using genetics, with a focus on improving our understanding of the key protein components of fibres, wool keratins and keratin-associated proteins (KAPs). Despite progress in our knowledge of these proteins, gaining a better understanding of them and how they affect these fibres remains an ongoing challenge. This is not straight-forward, given the large number of similar yet unique genes that produce the proteins and the gaps that remain in their identification and characterisation. More research is required to clarify gene and protein sequence variability and the location and patterns of gene expression, which in turn limits our understanding of fibre growth and variation. Several aspects that currently hinder our progress in this quest include the incomplete identification of all the genes and weaknesses in the approaches used to characterise them, including newer omics technologies. We describe future research directions and challenges, including the need for ongoing gene identification, variation characterisation, and gene expression analysis and association studies to enable further improvement to these valuable natural fibres.
羊毛（绵羊）和羊绒（山羊）纤维具有独特的生物学、物理和化学特性，随着对天然产品需求的增加，这些纤维正变得越来越重要。然而，这些复杂的蛋白质纤维有时会因其特性的自然变异性而受到影响，这可能会影响它们的用途和价值。通过选择和育种进行遗传改良可以部分克服这个问题，从而能够养殖出生产出更优质纤维的绵羊和山羊。本文综述探讨了利用遗传学改善羊毛和羊绒纤维特性所面临的挑战，重点是增进我们对纤维的关键蛋白质成分——羊毛角蛋白和角蛋白相关蛋白（KAPs）的理解。尽管我们在这些蛋白质的知识方面取得了进展，但要更好地理解它们以及它们如何影响这些纤维仍然是一个持续的挑战。鉴于产生这些蛋白质的大量相似但独特的基因以及在其鉴定和表征方面仍然存在的差距，这并非易事。需要更多的研究来阐明基因和蛋白质序列的变异性以及基因表达的位置和模式，这反过来又限制了我们对纤维生长和变异的理解。目前阻碍我们在这一探索中取得进展的几个方面包括所有基因的不完全鉴定以及用于表征它们的方法（包括更新的组学技术）的弱点。我们描述了未来的研究方向和挑战，包括持续进行基因鉴定、变异表征、基因表达分析和关联研究的必要性，以进一步改善这些有价值的天然纤维。
