Dataset Information

Identification of microRNAs in wool follicles during anagen, catagen, and telogen phases in Tibetan sheep.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Wool quality is one of the most important economic traits in sheep. The wool fiber is derived from specialized skin cells that are referred to as wool follicles. To understand the roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) in wool fiber growth, we detected the expression patterns of miRNAs in wool follicles at the anagen, catagen, and telogen stages from Tibetan sheep through Solexa sequencing.

Results

A total of 244 mature miRNAs were identified. Of these, only five miRNAs are listed in the database of sheep miRNAs (miRBase Database V19), and the other 239 miRNAs have not been previously described in this species. Further analyses indicated that 204 miRNAs are evolutionarily conserved among mammal species, whereas 35 of the identified miRNAs were first found specifically in sheep. The expression pattern analyses showed that the expression levels of 39, 34, and 20 of the miRNAs significantly change between anagen and catagen, between anagen and telogen, and between catagen and telogen, respectively. The results of the bioinformatics analysis show that these differentially expressed miRNAs might regulate wool follicle development by targeting genes in many different pathways, such as the MAPK and Wnt pathways, as well as the pathways that regulate the actin cytoskeleton, focal adhesion, and tight junctions. Furthermore, we identified six differentially expressed miRNAs (oar-miR-103-3P, oar-miR-148b-3P, oar-miR-320-3P, oar-miR-31-5P, oar-novel-1-5P, and oar-novel-2-3P) that might target the key genes of the Wnt pathway. It has been reported that the Wnt pathway is critical for wool follicle development. Therefore, these miRNAs may regulate wool development through the Wnt pathway.

Conclusions

Our results provide new information on the identification and expression pattern of miRNAs in wool follicles. Our data might therefore aid in the understanding of the mechanisms of wool follicle development in sheep.

SUBMITTER: Liu G

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3804049 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Identification of microRNAs in wool follicles during anagen, catagen, and telogen phases in Tibetan sheep.

Liu Guangbin G Liu Ruize R Li Qinqun Q Tang Xiaohui X Yu Mei M Li Xinyun X Cao Jianhua J Zhao Shuhong S

PloS one 20131017 10

<h4>Background</h4>Wool quality is one of the most important economic traits in sheep. The wool fiber is derived from specialized skin cells that are referred to as wool follicles. To understand the roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) in wool fiber growth, we detected the expression patterns of miRNAs in wool follicles at the anagen, catagen, and telogen stages from Tibetan sheep through Solexa sequencing.<h4>Results</h4>A total of 244 mature miRNAs were identified. Of these, only five miRNAs are listed ...[more]

PMID: 24204975

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Project description:Sheep provide considerable materials for the animal fibre industry. Identifying genes of major effect for wool growth would offer strategies for improving the quality and increasing the yield of fine wool. In this study, we employed Agilent Sheep Gene Expression Microarray and proteomic technology to investigate the gene expression patterns of body side skin (more wool growing) in Aohan fine wool sheep (a Chinese indigenous breed) in comparison with groin skin (no wool growing) at the anagen stage of wool follicle. Microarray study revealed that 4772 probes were differentially expressed, including 2071 upregulated and 2701 downregulated probes in the comparisons of body side skin versus groin skin (S/G). The microarray results were verified by means of quantitative PCR. 1099 probes were assigned to unique genes/transcripts. The number of distinct genes/transcripts (annotated) was 926, of which 352 were up-regulated and 574 were down-regulated. In S/G, 13 genes were up-regulated by more than 10-fold, while 60 genes were down-regulated by more than 10-fold. Further analysis revealed that the majority of the genes possibly related to the wool growth could be assigned into the categories including regulation of cell division, intermediate filament, cytoskeletal part and growth factor activity. Several potential gene families might participate in hair growth regulation, including fibroblast growth factors, transforming growth factor-Î², WNTs, insulin-like growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factors and so on. Proteomic analysis also got 196 differentially expressed protein points, of which 121 were identified as single protein points. Furthermore, according to the results at both mRNA and protein levels, similar regulation mechanism of gene activity might be engaged during skin development and embryo development. One ram and two ewes of 12-month-old Aohan fine wool sheep were used in the microarray study. These animals were half sibs (sharing the same father). In August 2010, two areas of full-thickness skin were sampled from the same animal under local anaesthesia: body side skin (wool bearing) and groin skin (non-wool bearing) for microarray and proteomic experiments. The area of each sample was about 1 cm2. All samples were immediately put into collection tubes and stored in liquid nitrogen for RNA and protein extraction. A total of 15, 208 probes were spotted on this Agilent Sheep Gene Expression Microarray (Santa Clara, CA, USA).

Project description:Hu sheep lambskin is a unique white lambskin from China that exhibits three types of flower patterns, including small waves, medium waves, and large waves, with small waves considered the best quality. However, our understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying flower pattern formation in Hu sheep lambskin is limited. The aim of the present study was to further explore the relevance between candidate microRNAs (miRNAs) and developmental characteristics of hair follicles and screen miRNAs for later functional validation. Herein, we employed Illumina Hiseq 2500 to identify differentially expressed miRNAs in hair follicles of different flower patterns with small, medium, and large waves to construct a comprehensive sequence database on the mechanism of hair follicle development. Paraffin sections of lambskin tissue were prepared to assess the structure of different hair follicles. Expression levels of candidate miRNAs in different flower patterns were analyzed by relative quantitation using real-time PCR, combined with histological observation and micro-observation technologies, and the correlation between expression levels of candidate miRNAs and histological properties of hair follicles was analyzed by using SPSS 17.0. A total of 522 differentially expressed miRNAs were identified, and RNA-seq analysis detected 7,266 target genes in different groups of flower patterns. Gene ontological analysis indicated these target genes were mainly involved in cell proliferation, differentiation, growth, apoptosis, and ion transport, and 14 miRNAs, including miR-143, miR-10a, and let-7 were screened as candidate miRNAs in Hu sheep hair follicle growth and development. In the same field of vision, variance analysis showed that the number of secondary follicles in small waves was significantly larger than that in large and medium waves (P<0.01); the diameter of the primary and secondary follicles in large waves was respectively larger than those in medium and small waves (P<0.01). Combined with correlation analysis between miRNA expression and histological properties of hair follicles, highly significant differences in miRNA-143 expression levels between large and small waves were observed (P<0.01), and significant differences in the miRNA-10a expression levels between large and small waves (P<0.05) and in let-7i expression levels between large and medium waves were observed (P<0.05). Significant differences in the expression of novel miRNAs of NW_004080184.1_6326 between medium and large waves were detected (P<0.05), and highly significant differences between medium and small waves were observed (P<0.01). Highly significant differences in the expression level of NW_004080165.1_8572 between medium and large and small waves (P<0.01), in that of NW_004080181.1_3961 between medium and small waves (P<0.01), and in that of NW_004080190.1_13733 between medium and large waves were observed, whereas no significant differences in the other miRNAs among large, medium, and small waves were detected. Overall, the present study showed that miRNA-143, miRNA-10a, let-7i, NW_004080184.1_6326, NW_004080165.1_8572, NW_004080181.1_3961, and NW_004080190.1_13733 could be considered as important candidate genes, indicating these seven miRNAs may play significant roles in hair follicle growth and development in Hu sheep lambskin.

Dataset Information

Identification of microRNAs in wool follicles during anagen, catagen, and telogen phases in Tibetan sheep.

Background

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Identification of microRNAs in wool follicles during anagen, catagen, and telogen phases in Tibetan sheep.

Similar Datasets

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