Defining Key Genes Regulating Morphogenesis of Apocrine Sweat Gland in Sheepskin

Screening of hair follicle telogen-associated circRNAs in sheep and construction of their ceRNA network

Sheep breeds with hair-shedding traits have many advantages over non-shedding sheep breeds, not only because of reduced shearing labor and feeding management costs but also because it reduces in vitro parasites and improves adaptability to summer heat stress. The wool of Dorper sheep naturally sheds in spring due to the periodic growth of hair follicles. CircRNAs primarily regulate the morphogenesis of hair follicles through the ceRNA mechanism. In this study, five 2-year-old Dorper ewes with extreme hair-shedding phenotype (S) and three Dorper ewes with non-shedding (N) phenotype were selected for subsequent analyses. For RNA extraction, skin tissues were collected on 27th September 2019 (S1, N1), 3rd January 2020 (S2, N2), and 17th March 2020 (S3, N3), which were then subjected to RNA-seq. RNA-seq technology revealed 20,185 novel circRNAs in the hair follicles of Dorper sheep. Among them, 1450 circRNAs were differentially expressed (DE). Clustering heatmap and expression pattern analyses were performed on DE circRNAs, which indicated 78 circRNAs with T pattern (Telogen, highly expressed in telogen), and the source genes for candidate circRNAs were further screened by functional enrichment analysis, which identified 13 crucial genes enriched in pathways associated with hair follicle development. Additionally, a ceRNA regulatory network comprising 4 circRNAs, 11 miRNAs, and 13 target genes was constructed. Overall, this study screened circRNAs that may be associated with the telogen phase of hair follicles in sheep, providing a relevant theoretical basis for wool shedding in sheep and for breeding Dorper sheep with automatic wool shedding.

Modulation of Disease-Associated Pathways in Hidradenitis Suppurativa by the Janus Kinase 1 Inhibitor Povorcitinib: Transcriptomic and Proteomic Analyses of Two Phase 2 Studies

Janus kinase (JAK)/signal transducer and activator of transcription signaling (STAT) has been implicated in the pathophysiology of hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). This study evaluated treatment-related transcriptomic and proteomic changes in patients with moderate-to-severe HS treated with the investigational oral JAK1-selective inhibitor povorcitinib (INCB054707) in two phase 2 trials. Lesional skin punch biopsies (baseline and Week 8) were taken from active HS lesions of patients receiving povorcitinib (15 or 30 mg) once daily (QD) or a placebo. RNA-seq and gene set enrichment analyses were used to evaluate the effects of povorcitinib on differential gene expression among previously reported gene signatures from HS and wounded skin. The number of differentially expressed genes was the greatest in the 30 mg povorcitinib QD dose group, consistent with the published efficacy results. Notably, the genes impacted reflected JAK/STAT signaling transcripts downstream of TNF-α signaling, or those regulated by TGF-β. Proteomic analyses were conducted on blood samples obtained at baseline and Weeks 4 and 8 from patients receiving povorcitinib (15, 30, 60, or 90 mg) QD or placebo. Povorcitinib was associated with transcriptomic downregulation of multiple HS and inflammatory signaling markers as well as the reversal of gene expression previously associated with HS lesional and wounded skin. Povorcitinib also demonstrated dose-dependent modulation of several proteins implicated in HS pathophysiology, with changes observed by Week 4. The reversal of HS lesional gene signatures and rapid, dose-dependent protein regulation highlight the potential of JAK1 inhibition to modulate underlying disease pathology in HS.

The role of WNT10B in physiology and disease: A 10-year update

WNT10B, a member of the WNT family of secreted glycoproteins, activates the WNT/β-catenin signaling cascade to control proliferation, stemness, pluripotency, and cell fate decisions. WNT10B plays roles in many tissues, including bone, adipocytes, skin, hair, muscle, placenta, and the immune system. Aberrant WNT10B signaling leads to several diseases, such as osteoporosis, obesity, split-hand/foot malformation (SHFM), fibrosis, dental anomalies, and cancer. We reviewed WNT10B a decade ago, and here we provide a comprehensive update to the field. Novel research on WNT10B has expanded to many more tissues and diseases. WNT10B polymorphisms and mutations correlate with many phenotypes, including bone mineral density, obesity, pig litter size, dog elbow dysplasia, and cow body size. In addition, the field has focused on the regulation of WNT10B using upstream mediators, such as microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). We also discussed the therapeutic implications of WNT10B regulation. In summary, research conducted during 2012-2022 revealed several new, diverse functions in the role of WNT10B in physiology and disease.

Effects of testosterone on skin structure and factors related to androgen conversion and binding in Hetian sheep

The effects of androgens on human skin mainly include the regulation of growth and differentiation of hair follicles and sebaceous glands. Androgens may have some physiological roles in sheep skin that are similar to those of humans, but further confirmation is needed. Therefore, Hetian sheep were chosen in this study as an animal model to explore the effects of testosterone on skin structure and factors related to androgen conversion and binding in Hetian sheep. The sheep were treated with different concentrations of testosterone for 42 days. Skin tissue sections were prepared and then subjected to hematoxylin-eosin, Sacpic, Masson's trichrome, and Oil Red O staining to observe changes in skin morphology. Changes in the content of blood-related factors were also detected using ELISA kits. The skin tissue distribution of androgen receptor was explored by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence assays. The results showed that testosterone significantly increases the sebaceous gland area and stimulates the formation of new sebaceous glands. Further exploration revealed that testosterone promotes the proliferation of sebaceous gland juvenile cells. However, testosterone was found to have no significant effect on hair follicle density and hair follicle structure. Testosterone increased dihydrotestosterone levels but decreased 5α-reductase 1 and 5α-reductase 2 levels. The androgen receptors were distributed in the hair follicles, sebaceous glands, and some major skin appendages of Hetian sheep. This study suggests that androgens can be effective in regulating sebum production in sheep. This study will help advance research efforts to further explore the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which androgens modify sheep follicles and sebaceous glands.

Identification of Genes Related to Hair Follicle Cycle Development in Inner Mongolia Cashmere Goat by WGCNA

Cashmere goat from Inner Mongolia is an excellent local breed in China, and the related cashmere product is a kind of precious textile raw material with high price. Cashmere is generated from secondary hair follicles, which has obvious annual periodicity and includes three different stages: anagen, catagen, and telogen. Therefore, we investigated skin transcriptome data for 12 months using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) to explore essential modules, pathways, and genes responsible for the periodic growth and development of secondary hair follicles. A total of 17 co-expression modules were discovered by WGCNA, and there is a strong correlation between steelblue module and month (0.65, p = 3E−09), anagen (0.52, p = 1E−05), telogen (−0.6, p = 8E−08). Gene expression was generally high during late anagen to catagen (June to December), while expression was downregulated from telogen to early anagen (January–May), which is similar to the growth rule of hair follicle cycle. KEGG pathway enrichment analyses of the genes of steelblue module indicated that genes are mainly enriched in Cell cycle, Wnt signaling pathway, p53 signaling pathway and other important signal pathways. These genes were also significantly enriched in GO functional annotation of the cell cycle, microtubule movement, microtubule binding, tubulin binding, and so on. Ten genes (WIF1, WNT11, BAMBI, FZD10, NKD1, LEF1, CCND3, E2F3, CDC6, and CDC25A) were selected from these modules, and further identified as candidate biomarkers to regulate periodic development of hair follicles using qRT-PCR. The Wnt signaling pathway and Cell cycle play an important role in the periodic development of hair follicles. Ten genes were identified as essential functional molecules related to periodic development of hair follicle. These findings laid a foundation for understanding molecular mechanisms in biological functions such as hair follicle development and hair growth in cashmere goats.

Transcriptional atlas analysis from multiple tissues reveals the expression specificity patterns in beef cattle

Background

A comprehensive analysis of gene expression profiling across tissues can provide necessary information for an in-depth understanding of their biological functions. We performed a large-scale gene expression analysis and generated a high-resolution atlas of the transcriptome in beef cattle.

Results

Our transcriptome atlas was generated from 135 bovine tissues in adult beef cattle, covering 51 tissue types of major organ systems (e.g., muscular system, digestive system, immune system, reproductive system). Approximately 94.76% of sequencing reads were successfully mapped to the reference genome assembly ARS-UCD1.2. We detected a total of 60,488 transcripts, and 32% of them were not reported before. We identified 2654 housekeeping genes (HKGs) and 477 tissue-specific genes (TSGs) across tissues. Using weighted gene co-expression network analysis, we obtained 24 modules with 237 hub genes (HUBGs). Functional enrichment analysis showed that HKGs mainly maintain the basic biological activities of cells, while TSGs were involved in tissue differentiation and specific physiological processes. HKGs in bovine tissues were more conserved in terms of expression pattern as compared to TSGs and HUBGs among multiple species. Finally, we obtained a subset of tissue-specific differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between beef and dairy cattle and several functional pathways, which may be involved in production and health traits.

Conclusions

We generated a large-scale gene expression atlas across the major tissues in beef cattle, providing valuable information for enhancing genome assembly and annotation. HKGs, TSGs, and HUBGs further contribute to better understanding the biology and evolution of multiple tissues in cattle. DEGs between beef and dairy cattle also fill in the knowledge gaps about differential transcriptome regulation of bovine tissues underlying economically important traits.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12915-022-01269-4.

Dissolving Microneedle Delivery of a Prophylactic HPV Vaccine

Prophylactic vaccines capable of preventing human papillomavirus (HPV) infections are still inaccessible to a vast majority of the global population due to their high cost and challenges related to multiple administrations performed in a medical setting. In an effort to improve distribution and administration, we have developed dissolvable microneedles loaded with a thermally stable HPV vaccine candidate consisting of Qβ virus-like particles (VLPs) displaying a highly conserved epitope from the L2 protein of HPV (Qβ-HPV). Polymeric microneedle delivery of Qβ-HPV produces similar amounts of anti-HPV16 L2 IgG antibodies compared to traditional subcutaneous injection while delivering a much smaller amount of intradermal dose. However, a dose sparing effect was found. Furthermore, immunization yielded neutralizing antibody responses in a HPV pseudovirus assay. The vaccine candidate was confirmed to be stable at room temperature after storage for several months, potentially mitigating many of the challenges associated with cold-chain distribution. The ease of self-administration and minimal invasiveness of such microneedle patch vaccines may enable wide-scale distribution of the HPV vaccine and lead to higher patient compliance. The Qβ VLP and its delivery technology is a plug-and-play system that could serve as a universal platform with a broad range of applications. Qβ VLPs may be stockpiled for conjugation to a wide range of epitopes, which are then packaged and delivered directly to the patient via noninvasive microneedle patches. Such a system paves the way for rapid distribution and self-administration of vaccines.

Whole-genome re-sequencing association study on yearling wool traits in Chinese fine-wool sheep

To investigate single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci associated with yearling wool traits of fine-wool sheep for optimizing marker-assisted selection and dissection of the genetic architecture of wool traits, we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) based on the fixed and random model circulating probability unification (FarmCPU) for yearling staple length (YSL), yearling mean fiber diameter (YFD), yearling greasy fleece weight (YGFW), and yearling clean fleece rate (YCFR) by using the whole-genome re-sequenced data (totaling 577 sheep) from the following four fine-wool sheep breeds in China: Alpine Merino sheep (AMS), Chinese Merino sheep (CMS), Qinghai fine-wool sheep (QHS), and Aohan fine-wool sheep (AHS). A total of 16 SNPs were detected above the genome-wise significant threshold (P = 5.45E-09), and 79 SNPs were located above the suggestive significance threshold (P = 5.00E-07) from the GWAS results. For YFD and YGFW traits, 7 and 9 SNPs reached the genome-wise significance thresholds, whereas 10 and 12 SNPs reached the suggestive significance threshold, respectively. For YSL and YCFR traits, none of the SNPs reached the genome-wise significance thresholds, whereas 57 SNPs exceeded the suggestive significance threshold. We recorded 14 genes located at the region of ±50-kb near the genome-wise significant SNPs and 59 genes located at the region of ±50-kb near the suggestive significant SNPs. Meanwhile, we used the Average Information Restricted Maximum likelihood algorithm (AI-REML) in the “HIBLUP” package to estimate the heritability and variance components of the four desired yearling wool traits. The estimated heritability values (h²) of YSL, YFD, YGFW, and YCFR were 0.6208, 0.7460, 0.6758, and 0.5559, respectively. We noted that the genetic parameters in this study can be used for fine-wool sheep breeding. The newly detected significant SNPs and the newly identified candidate genes in this study would enhance our understanding of yearling wool formation, and significant SNPs can be applied to genome selection in fine-wool sheep breeding.

Single cell transcriptional zonation of human psoriasis skin identifies an alternative immunoregulatory axis conducted by skin resident cells

Psoriasis is the most common skin disease in adults. Current experimental and clinical evidences suggested the infiltrating immune cells could target local skin cells and thus induce psoriatic phenotype. However, recent studies indicated the existence of a potential feedback signaling loop from local resident skin cells to infiltrating immune cells. Here, we deconstructed the full-thickness human skins of both healthy donors and patients with psoriasis vulgaris at single cell transcriptional level, and further built a neural-network classifier to evaluate the evolutional conservation of skin cell types between mouse and human. Last, we systematically evaluated the intrinsic and intercellular molecular alterations of each cell type between healthy and psoriatic skin. Cross-checking with psoriasis susceptibility gene loci, cell-type based differential expression, and ligand-receptor communication revealed that the resident psoriatic skin cells including mesenchymal and epidermis cell types, which specifically harbored the target genes of psoriasis susceptibility loci, intensively evoked the expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, upregulated interferon (INF), tumor necrosis factor (TNF) signalling and increased cytokine gene expression for primarily aiming the neighboring dendritic cells in psoriasis. The comprehensive exploration and pathological observation of psoriasis patient biopsies proposed an uncovered immunoregulatory axis from skin local resident cells to immune cells, thus provided a novel insight for psoriasis treatment. In addition, we published a user-friendly website to exhibit the transcriptional change of each cell type between healthy and psoriatic human skin.

Transcriptomic and metabolomic insights into the variety of sperm storage in oviduct of egg layers

In birds, the sperm storage tubules (SST) are dispersed in uterovaginal junction (UVJ) and highly correlated with differential capacity of sperm storage (SS) in and among species with unspecified mechanisms. Here, the SS duration of 252 egg layer breeders was evaluated in 5 rounds with 3 phenotypic traits to screen high- and low-SS individuals, respectively, followed with transcriptome of UVJ tissues and metabolome of serum (high-SS vs. low-SS) to decipher the candidate genes and biochemical markers correlated with differential SS capacity. Histological characterization suggested slightly higher density of SST in UVJ (high-SS vs. low-SS). Transcriptome analyses identified 596 differentially expressed genes (336 upregulated vs. 260 downregulated), which were mainly enriched in gene ontology terms of homeostasis, steroid and lipid metabolism and hormone activity, and 12 significant pathways (P < 0.05) represented by calcium, steroid, and lipid metabolism. Immunohistochemical staining of GNAQ, ST6GAL1, ADFP, and PCNA showed similar distribution in UVJ tissues between 2 groups. Several candidates (HSD11B2, DIO2, AQP3, GNAQ, NANS, ST6GAL1) combined with 4 (11β-prostaglandin F2α, prostaglandin B1, 7α-hydroxytestosterone, and N-acetylneuraminic acid) of 40 differential metabolites enriched in serum metabolome were considered as regulators and biomarkers of SS duration in egg layer breeders. The integrated transcriptome and metabolome analyses of chicken breeder hens will provide novel insights for exploration and improvement of differential SS capacity in birds.

Comparative investigation of coarse and fine wool sheep skin indicates the early regulators for skin and wool diversity

The hair follicle is an excellent mini-system illustrating the mechanisms governing organogenesis and regeneration. Although the general mechanisms modulating skin and hair follicle development are widely studied in mouse and chicken models, the delicate network regulating skin and hair diversity remains largely unclear. Sheep is an additional model to address the various wool characteristics observed in nature. The coarse and fine wool sheep with diverse fibers were examined to show differences in the primary wool follicle size and skin thickness. The molecular dynamics in skin staged at the primary wool follicle induction between two sheep lines were investigated by RNA-sequencing analyses to generate 1994 differentially expressed genes revealing marker genes for epithelium (6 genes), dermal condensate (38 genes) and dermal fibroblast (58 genes) highly correlated with skin and wool follicle morphological differences. The DEGs were enriched in GO terms represented by epithelial cell migration and differentiation, regulation of hair follicle development and ectodermal placode formation, and KEGG pathways typified by WNT and Hedgehog signaling pathways governing the differences of skin structure. The qPCR detection of 9 genes confirmed the similar expression tendency with RNA-sequencing profiles. This comparative study of coarse and fine wool sheep skin reveals the presence of skin and wool follicle differences at primary wool follicle induction stage, and indicates the potential effectors (APCDD1, FGF20, DKK1, IGFBP3 and SFRP4) regulating the skin compartments during the early morphogenesis of primary wool follicles to shape the variable wool fiber thickness in later developmental stages.

Expression patterns of three JAK-STAT pathway genes in feather follicle development during chicken embryogenesis

The Janus kinase (JAK)-signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) (JAK-STAT) pathway is shown to restrain the hair follicles in catagen and telogen and prevent anagen reentry in murine hair follicle cycling. The early roles of JAK-STAT pathway genes in skin development remain uncharacterized in mouse and chicken models. Here, we revealed the expression patterns of three JAK-STAT pathway genes (JAK1, JAK2, and TYK2) in chicken embryonic skin at E6-E10 stages which are key to feather follicle morphogenesis. Multiple sequence alignment of the three genes from chicken and other species all showed a closely related homology with birds like quail and goose. Whole mount in situ hybridization (WISH) revealed weak expression of JAK1, JAK2, and TYK2 in chicken skin at E6 and E7, and followed with the focally restricted signals in the feather follicles of neck and body skin located dorsally at E8 for JAK1, E9 for TYK2 and E10 for JAK2 gene. All three genes displayed stronger expression in feather follicles of neck skin than that of body skin. The expression levels of JAK1 and TYK2 were much stronger than those of JAK2. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis revealed the increased expression tendency for JAK2 both in the neck and body skin from E6 to E10, and the much stronger expression in neck and body skin at later stages (E8-E10) than earlier stages (E6 and E7) for JAK1 and TYK2. Overall, these findings suggest that JAK1 and TYK2, not JAK2 are important to specify the feather follicle primordia, and to arrange the proximal-distal axis of feather follicles, respectively, during the morphogenesis of feather follicles in embryonic chicken skin.