Hair Keratin: Composition, Structure and Biogenesis

Patterns of expression of trichocytic and epithelial cytokeratins in mammalian tissues II. Concomitant and mutually exclusive synthesis of trichocytic and epithelial cytokeratins in diverse human and bovine tissues (hair follicle, nail bed and matrix, lingual papilla, thymic reticulum)

“…A group of eight major (Hal-4 and Hbl-4) and two minor (Hax and Hbx) cytokeratin polypeptides (the "hard" akeratins) has been identified in the living hair-forming cells, i.e., trichocytes, of follicles of human and bovine hairs and sheep wool ( [30,31,701, see also [4,10,11,15,23,42,55,691). The members of this group are relatedbut not identicalto the epithelial cytokeratin polypeptides (components no.…”

Size Polymorphisms in the Human Ultrahigh Sulfur Hair Keratin-Associated Protein 4, KAP4, Gene Family

“…Nevertheless, the size polymorphisms of the KAP4 genes should result in different levels of cysteine content at the protein level. In the hair fiber, it has been proposed that the high cysteine content in KAP provides the chemical means for the cross-linked network with the KIF (Powell and Rogers, 1986). Thus, the different numbers of cysteine-rich repeats among the size variants in the KAP will change the strength of their interaction with the KIF.…”

Identification of Polymorphism in the Keratin Genes (KAP3.2, KAP6.1, KAP7, KAP8) and Microsatellite BfMS in Merino Sheep Using Polymerase Chain Reaction-Single Strand Conformational Polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) Analysi

“…The KRTs form the skeletal structure of the wool fibre (microfibrils) and are embedded in a matrix of KAPs (Powell and Rogers, 1986), the different proteins being connected through disulphide cross-linkages (Powell, 1996). Therefore, genes that code for the KAPs and KRTs proteins are potential candidate genes in the identification of genetic markers associated with wool quality traits.…”