Shedding light on cashmere goat hair follicle biology: from morphology analyses to transcriptomic landascape

Abstract

Background: Cashmere goat is known for its precious undercoat. Being photoperiod-dictated, cashmere growth has been studied focusing mainly on hair follicle cycle phases (anagen, catagen and telogen). An accurate molecular knowledge of the goat hair follicle cycle, disentangling gene expression changes during phases and recognizing timing boundaries, could be useful to improve cashmere goat management and ultimately cashmere production. Results: To better describe goat's hair follicle transcriptome we applied RNA-sequencing to isolated hair follicles from five Italian cashmere goats, during the anagen and catagen phase, identifying total of 214 differentially expressed genes (DEGs): 97 were up-regulated while 117 were down-regulated in catagen with respect to anagen. Gene Ontology and pathway analysis were performed. We detected 144 significant pathways spanning from estrogen, pluripotency of stem cells, thermogenesis and fatty acid metabolism that were strongly expressed during the hair follicle phases analysed. Finally, we validated promising DEGs by RT-qPCR in the same set of samples as well as in hair follicles and entire skin biopsies of another cashmere goats cohort accounting for early anagen, anagen, early catagen, and catagen phases. Conclusions: As in the isolated hair follicles, some target genes were homogenously modulated during the four hair follicle phases. Ceruloplasmin (CP) and Keratin 4 (K4), confirmed their clear cut expression between growing and resting phase. In fact, K4 was almost absent in catagen phases while CP was barely expressed in anagen phases. In particular, the strong expression of K4 in early anagen makes it an eligible marker to track the beginning of a new hair cycle, and therefore defining the optimum time for cashmere harvesting.

Downregulated INHBB in endometrial tissue of recurrent implantation failure patients impeded decidualization through the ADCY1/cAMP signalling pathway

“…Following activation of membrane-bound adenylyl cyclase, ATP is converted to cAMP. Adenylate cyclase 1 (Adcy1) is the most upregulated gene in the oestrogen pathway during catagen [ 40 ]. While ADCY2 is another member of the adenylyl cyclase family.…”

Whole blood transcriptome profiling identifies candidate genes associated with alopecia in male giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)

“…Our enrichment results are consistent with a previous study where the oxidative phosphorylation pathway was reported to be related to hair follicle cycling [ 34 ]. The thermogenesis pathway was another enriched pathway in our study, which was unusual of the hair follicle cycle activities, underlining the relationship between environmental temperature and hair growth [ 38 ]. The present study confirmed the abnormal expression of several pathways related to hair growth.…”

A Kaleidoscope of Keratin Gene Expression and the Mosaic of Its Regulatory Mechanisms

“…This hair shaft central part possesses the most complicated spectra of keratins, including keratins of ORS, IRS, hair shaft cuticle, and cortex ( Figure 2 ) [ 168 ]. Several noncanonical skin or hair keratins could be identified in hair follicles of different mammalian taxons, in particular, including a unique mammal-specific splice variant of keratin 80 in humans [ 171 ] or mucosa-related keratin 4 and 13 in cashmere goats [ 172 ]. Hair and nails, as well as other hard keratinized mammalian skin derivatives such as horns and hoofs, are examples of highly restricted unique keratin expression areas.…”