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Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are the structurally similar and highly conserved type of functional proteins that play an important role in hair follicle growth and development. BMP7 was a differentially expressed gene in different patterns of Hu sheep lambskin identified using Agilent microarray. Since hair follicle is the basis of pattern formation of lambskin, and its growth and development is governed by dermal papilla cells (DPCs), to clarify the role of BMP7 and hair follicle, our study was designed to investigate the regulation between BMP7 and DPCs. Firstly, the CDS region of BMP7 was cloned by 3'Race and PCR in Hu sheep and performed serious of bioinformatic analysis. Then, the effects of BMP7 on DPCs were analyzed after overexpression and interference of BMP7 in dermal papilla cells by CCK8, EdU, and PI assay. Additionally, qPCR was also conducted to clarify the relationship between BMP7 and the TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway. A total of 1296 bp of the BMP7 CDS region sequence was sucessfully cloned in Hu sheep, encoding a signal peptide of 431 amino acids, molecular weight was 49,316.9 Da and the isoelectric point (Pi) was 7.75. Nucleotide sequencing analysis of BMP7 revealed that Hu sheep had high homology with Bos taurus, Homo sapiens, and Canis lupus familiaris. Structure domain prediction showed that TGF-β superfamily domain exist between 330th–431th amino acid, BMP7 protein is a secreted protein. In BMP7 up-regulated DPCs, DPCs proliferation rate and cell cycle were significantly higher than that of NC group (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, the expression level of Smad3, Smad4, Samd6, and TGF-β1 in TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway were significantly lower than that in NC group (p < 0.05). In BMP7 down-regulated DPCs, it presented the opposite result. In conclusion, our study showed that BMP7 had a positive effect on DPCs by accelerating the proliferation and cell cycle of DPCs, and hypothesized that regulate hair follicles growth and development via TGF-β/Smad signaling pathway. These findings may provide a synergistic target for the subsequent research of hair follicle growth and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Domestic sheep and their wild relatives harbor substantial genetic variants that can form the backbone of molecular breeding, but their genome landscapes remain understudied. Here, we present a comprehensive genome resource for wild ovine species, landraces and improved breeds of domestic sheep, comprising high-coverage (∼16.10×) whole genomes of 810 samples from 7 wild species and 158 diverse domestic populations. We detected, in total, ∼121.2 million single nucleotide polymorphisms, ∼61 million of which are novel. Some display significant (P < 0.001) differences in frequency between wild and domestic species, or are private to continent-wide or individual sheep populations. Retained or introgressed wild gene variants in domestic populations have contributed to local adaptation, such as the variation in the HBB associated with plateau adaptation. We identified novel and previously reported targets of selection on morphological and agronomic traits such as stature, horn, tail configuration, and wool fineness. We explored the genetic basis of wool fineness and unveiled a novel mutation (chr25: T7,068,586C) in the 3'-UTR of IRF2BP2 as plausible causal variant for fleece fiber diameter. We reconstructed prehistorical migrations from the Near Eastern domestication center to South-and-Southeast Asia and found two main waves of migrations across the Eurasian Steppe and the Iranian Plateau in the Early and Late Bronze Ages. Our findings refine our understanding of genome variation as shaped by continental migrations, introgression, adaptation, and selection of sheep., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.)

How animals, particularly livestock, adapt to various climates and environments over short evolutionary time is of fundamental biological interest. Further, understanding the genetic mechanisms of adaptation in indigenous livestock populations is important for designing appropriate breeding programs to cope with the impacts of changing climate. Here, we conducted a comprehensive genomic analysis of diversity, interspecies introgression, and climate-mediated selective signatures in a global sample of sheep and their wild relatives. By examining 600K and 50K genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism data from 3,447 samples representing 111 domestic sheep populations and 403 samples from all their seven wild relatives (argali, Asiatic mouflon, European mouflon, urial, snow sheep, bighorn, and thinhorn sheep), coupled with 88 whole-genome sequences, we detected clear signals of common introgression from wild relatives into sympatric domestic populations, thereby increasing their genomic diversities. The introgressions provided beneficial genetic variants in native populations, which were significantly associated with local climatic adaptation. We observed common introgression signals of alleles in olfactory-related genes (e.g., ADCY3 and TRPV1) and the PADI gene family including in particular PADI2, which is associated with antibacterial innate immunity. Further analyses of whole-genome sequences showed that the introgressed alleles in a specific region of PADI2 (chr2: 248,302,667-248,306,614) correlate with resistance to pneumonia. We conclude that wild introgression enhanced climatic adaptation and resistance to pneumonia in sheep. This has enabled them to adapt to varying climatic and environmental conditions after domestication., (© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.)