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FAT atypical cadherin 1 (FAT1) is a member of the atypical cadherin superfamily and is involved in the planar cell polarity signalling pathway which regulates hair follicle morphogenesis, cycling, and orientation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the sheep FAT1 gene expression, polymorphisms and its association with wool quality traits in Chinese Merino sheep. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that the FAT1 mRNA was differentially expressed in the adult skin of Chinese Merino and Kazak sheep. Seven SNPs (termed SNPs 1-7) were identified in exon 2 of sheep FAT1 gene by Sanger sequencing. SNPs 2 and 7 (novel SNPs) were significantly associated with wool crimp (P < 0.05). SNPs 4 and 5 (rs161528993 and rs161528992) were significantly associated with wool fibre length (P < 0.05). SNP 7 was highly significantly associated with average wool fibre diameter (P < 0.01). Similarly, FAT1 haplotypes were significantly associated with wool crimp (P < 0.05), and the haplotypes H1-H3 and H5 were significantly associated with higher wool crimp (P < 0.05). Bioinformatics analysis showed that the wool quality trait-associated SNPs (SNPs 2, 4, 5 and 7) might affect the pre-mRNA splicing by creating or abolishing the binding sites for serine/arginine-rich proteins, and in addition, SNPs 2 and 4 might alter the FAT1 mRNA secondary structure. Our results suggest that FAT1 influences wool quality traits and its SNPs 2, 4, 5 and 7 might be useful markers for marker-assisted selection and sheep breeding.

H5N1 influenza represents one of the great challenges to public health. Some H5N1 viruses (i.e., A/goose/Hubei/65/05, GS/65) are weakly pathogenic, while the others (i.e., A/duck/Hubei/49/05, DK/49) are highly pathogenic to their natural hosts. Here, we performed brain and spleen transcriptomic analyses of control ducks and ones infected by the DK/49 or the GS/65 H5N1 virus. We demonstrated that, compared to the GS/65 virus, the DK/49 virus infection changed more numerous immune genes’ expression and caused continuous increasing of immune pathways (i.e., RIG-I and MDA5) in ducks. We found that both H5N1 virus strains might escape or subvert host immune response through affecting alternative translation of immune genes, while the DK/49 virus seemed to induce alternative translation of more immune genes than the GS/65 virus. We also identified five co-expressional modules associated with H5N1 virus replication through the weight correlation network analysis (WGCNA). Moreover, we first demonstrated that the duck BCL2L15 and DCSTAMP in one of these five modules inhibited both the highly pathogenic and weakly pathogenic H5N1 virus replication efficiently. These analyses, in combination with our comprehensive transcriptomic data, provided global view of the molecular architecture for the interaction between host and H5N1 viruses.

2´-5´-Oligoadenylate synthetase like protein (OASL) plays a key role in response to viral infections through selectively activating the OAS/RNase L or OASL/RIG-I signaling pathway. Although classic pathway of OASL is well-known, its regulated genes or co-actors are largely unknown. To study the possible molecular mechanism of duck OASL (dOASL), we performed RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) and immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry (IP-MS) at the level of mRNA and protein, respectively. For RNA-seq, we used DF1 cell lines (DF1dOASL+/+, DF1cOASL–/–, and DF1) with or without the CK/0513 H5N1 virus (A/chicken/huabei/0513/2007) infection. 1 737 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified as candidate target genes regulated by dOASL. Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis and Weighted Correlation Network Analysis (WGCNA) were performed. We identified one important yellow co-expression module correlated with antiviral immune response. In this module, Ankyrin repeat and FYVE domain containing 1 (ANKFY1), harboring a BTB domain similar to the methyl CpG-binding protein 1 (MBD1) which bound to OASL in human, was regulated by dOASL. At protein level, 133 host proteins were detected. Interestingly, ANKFY1 was one of them binding to dOASL protein. Further phylogenomic and chromosomal syntenic analysis demonstrated MBD1 was absent in birds, while mammals retained. It is suggested that OASL-ANKFY1 interaction might act as a compensatory mechanism to regulate gene expression in birds. Our findings will provide a useful resource for the molecular mechanism research of dOASL.

Follistatin (FST) is involved in hair follicle morphogenesis. However, its effects on hair traits are not clear. This study was designed to investigate the effects of FST gene single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) on wool quality traits in Chinese Merino sheep (Junken Type). We performed gene expression analysis, SNP detection, and association analysis of FST gene with sheep wool quality traits. The real-time RT-PCR analysis showed that FST gene was differentially expressed in adult skin between Chinese Merino sheep (Junken Type) and Suffolk sheep. Immunostaining showed that FST was localized in inner root sheath (IRS) and matrix of hair follicle (HF) in both SF and Suffolk sheep. Sequencing analysis identified a total of seven SNPs (termed SNPs 1-7) in the FST gene in Chinese Merino sheep (Junken Type). Association analysis showed that SNP2 (Chr 16. 25,633,662 G>A) was significantly associated with average wool fiber diameter, wool fineness SD, and wool crimp (P < 0.05). SNP4 (Chr 16. 25,633,569 C>T) was significantly associated with wool fineness SD and CV of fiber diameter (P < 0.05). Similarly, the haplotypes derived from these seven identified SNPs were also significantly associated with average wool fiber diameter, wool fineness SD, CV of fiber diameter, and wool crimp (P < 0.05). Our results suggest that FST influences wool quality traits and its SNPs 2 and 4 might be useful markers for marker-assisted selection and sheep breeding.