Pashmina, the world’s finest natural fiber is derived from secondary hair follicles of Changthangi goats which are domesticated in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir by nomadic pastoralists. Complex epithelial-mesenchymal interactions involving numerous signal molecules and signaling pathways govern hair follicle morphogenesis and mitosis across different species. The present study involved transcriptome profiling of skin from fiber type Changthangi goats and meat type Barbari goats to unravel gene networks and metabolic pathways that might contribute to Pashmina development. In Changthangi goats, 525 genes were expressed at significantly higher levels and 54 at significantly lower levels with fold change >2 (p_adj < 0.05). Functional annotation and enrichment analysis identified significantly enriched pathways to be formation of the cornified envelope, keratinization and developmental biology. Expression of genes for keratins (KRTs) and keratin-associated proteins (KRTAPs) was observed to be much higher in Changthangi goats. A host of transcriptional regulator genes for hair follicle keratin synthesis such as GPRC5D, PADI3, HOXC13, FOXN1, LEF1 and ELF5 showed higher transcript abundance in Pashmina producing goats. Positive regulation of Wnt signaling pathway and negative regulation of Oncostatin M signaling pathway may be speculated to be important contributors to hair follicle development and hair shaft differentiation in Changthangi goats.

Pashmina是世界上最优质的天然纤维，来自昌唐吉山羊的次生毛囊，游牧牧民在家养在查mu和克什米尔的拉达克地区。涉及许多信号分子和信号通路的复杂的上皮-间质相互作用控制着不同物种间的毛囊形态发生和有丝分裂。本研究涉及从纤维型Changthangi山羊和肉类Barbari山羊到皮肤的转录组分析，以揭示可能有助于帕什米纳发展的基因网络和代谢途径。在昌唐吉山羊中，有525个基因以较高的水平表达，有54个以明显较低的水平表达，而倍数变化> 2（_pdj <0.05）。功能注释和富集分析确定了显着富集的途径，这些途径是角质包膜的形成，角化和发育生物学。在昌唐吉山羊中，观察到角蛋白（KRTs）和角蛋白相关蛋白（KRTAPs）的基因表达更高。毛囊角蛋白合成的许多转录调节基因，例如GPRC5D，PADI3，HOXC13，FOXN1，LEF1和ELF5，在生产帕什米纳的山羊中表现出较高的转录丰度。Wnt信号通路的正向调节和制瘤素M信号通路的负向调节可能被认为是昌坦吉山羊毛囊发育和毛干分化的重要因素。