Cashmere, also known as soft gold, is produced from the secondary hair follicles (SHFs) of cashmere goats. The number of SHFs determines the yield and quality of cashmere; therefore, it is of interest to investigate the transcriptional profiles present during cashmere goat hair follicle development. However, mechanisms underlying this development process remain largely unexplored, and studies regarding hair follicle development mostly use a murine research model. In this study, to provide a comprehensive understanding of cellular heterogeneity and cell fate decisions, single-cell RNA sequencing was performed on 19,705 single cells of the dorsal skin from cashmere goat fetuses at induction (embryonic day 60; E60), organogenesis (E90), and cytodifferentiation (E120) stages. For the first time, unsupervised clustering analysis identified 16 cell clusters, and their corresponding cell types were also characterized. Based on lineage inference, a detailed molecular landscape was revealed along the dermal and epidermal cell lineage developmental pathways. Notably, our current data also confirmed the heterogeneity of dermal papillae from different hair follicle types, which was further validated by immunofluorescence analysis. The current study identifies different biomarkers during cashmere goat hair follicle development and has implications for cashmere goat breeding in the future.

羊绒又称软金，是由山羊绒的次生毛囊（SHF）制成的。SHF的数量决定了羊绒的产量和质量；因此，研究山羊绒毛囊发育过程中存在的转录谱是很有意义的。然而，这一发育过程背后的机制在很大程度上仍未被探索，关于毛囊发育的研究大多使用小鼠研究模型。在本研究中，为了全面了解细胞异质性和细胞命运决定，在诱导（胚胎第 60 天；E60）、器官发生 (E90) 和细胞分化 (E120) 阶段，对来自羊绒山羊胎儿的 19,705 个背侧皮肤单细胞进行了单细胞 RNA 测序。无监督聚类分析首次确定了 16 个细胞簇，并对其相应的细胞类型进行了表征。基于谱系推断，沿着真皮和表皮细胞谱系发育途径揭示了详细的分子景观。值得注意的是，我们目前的数据还证实了来自不同毛囊类型的真皮乳头的异质性，这通过免疫荧光分析得到了进一步验证。目前的研究确定了绒山羊毛囊发育过程中的不同生物标志物，并对未来的绒山羊育种产生了影响。