A Study of Combined Genotype Effects of SHCBP1 on Wool Quality Traits in Chinese Merino.

SHCBP1 (Shc SH2-domain binding protein 1) is a member of the Src and collagen homolog (Shc) protein family and is closely associated with multiple signaling pathways that play important roles during hair follicle induction, morphogenesis, and cycling. The purpose of this study was to investigate SHCBP1 gene expression, polymorphisms, and the association between SHCBP1 and wool quality traits in Chinese Merino sheep. The SHCBP1 gene was shown, by qPCR, to be ubiquitously expressed in sheep tissues and differentially expressed in the adult skin of Chinese Merino and Suffolk sheep.

Functional Analysis of Sheep POU2F3 Isoforms.

POU domain class 2 transcription factor 3 (POU2F3) plays an important role in keratinocyte proliferation and differentiation. Our previous study identified four sheep POU2F3 transcript variants (POU2F3-1, POU2F3-2, POU2F3-3, and POU2F3-4), encoding three POU2F3 protein isoforms (POU2F3-1, POU2F3-2, and POU2F3-3). However, the functional differences among the three POU2F3 isoforms remain unknown.

[Post-transcriptional regulation of chicken PPARγ transcript variant 3 by upstream open reading frame].

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) is a critical regulator of adipogenesis. Our previous study showed that unlike human and mouse PPARγ transcripts, several chicken PPARγ transcript variants contain upstream open reading frames (uORFs) in their 5'untranslated region (5'TR). To decipher the role of uORFs in post-transcriptional regulation of chicken PPARγ gene, we constructed wild-type (psiCHECK2-cPPARγ3-5'UTR-WT) and a uORF mutant (the upstream ATG (uATG) was mutated to stop codon TGA) 5'UTR reporters (psiCHECK2-cPPARγ3- 5'UTR-Mut) of chicken PPARγ transcript variant 3 (cPPARγ3).