Resistance to natural tick infestation varies with age and coat and hair traits in a tropically adapted beef cattle breed.

Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus causes considerable livestock production losses. Knowledge of the traits that influence tick resistance contributes to the development of breeding strategies designed to improve herd productivity. Within this context, this study evaluated the resistance of Caracu, a tropically adapted cattle breed, to R. microplus. Tick count, hair length, coat thickness, and coat color were evaluated in 202 naturally tick-infested females (cows and heifers) over a period of 18 months. Blood samples were collected from all animals during the winter season for hematological analysis. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlations, generalized linear models, and principal component analysis. Correlation coefficients of tick count with coat color, coat thickness, and hair length were estimated within each season. Hematological parameters were only included in the winter season analysis and were analyzed by the restricted maximum likelihood method using log-transformed data. No differences in blood parameters were observed between animals with and without ticks. However, tick count was negatively correlated with erythrocytes (-0.29) and hematocrit (-0.24) and positively correlated with mean corpuscular hemoglobin (0.21) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (0.25). These findings suggest that higher tick counts lead to a decrease in erythrocytes but also to an increase in the amount of hemoglobin per erythrocyte, which could reduce the damage caused by low erythrocyte levels due to tick hematophagy, delaying or preventing anemia. Although tick infestation on pasture was demonstrated by the infestation of all staff members during herd management, none of the animals exhibited high tick counts, providing evidence of resistance of Caracu animals to R. microplus. Tick infestation was influenced by age class (cows > heifers), season (spring and summer > fall and winter), coat thickness (>1.5 mm > <1.5 mm), and hair length (>6 mm > <6 mm). Three components were extracted by principal component analysis, which accounted for 69.46% of data variance. The findings of this study will contribute to the development of efficient strategies aimed at reducing economic losses due to tick infestation and could be applied in animal breeding to select for tick resistance traits, reducing chemical control strategies and consequently improving sustainable livestock production.

Ernest Dichter's fur coat models: Fashioning a therapeutic culture.

Discussions of the rise of therapeutic culture have tended toward the abstract, in part due to a focus on theory. This article looks at the case of Ernest Dichter's motivational research, particularly a study conducted on fur coats in the late 1950s, to locate this broader cultural shift more materially. Motivational research was a broad project of study that aimed to uncover unconscious consumer desires using the tools of psychology and psychoanalysis. This project materialized culture first through the pen-and-paper projective test created for the study, which sorted styles of fur into different classifications of womanhood, and second through the fur coats themselves, which were granted by Dichter a psychological agency of their own in their relationship with middle-class women. Through this study, Dichter observed a shift in Americans' understanding of the self, a movement away from meeting physiological needs to addressing their inner lives; changing economic conditions had granted more income and free time with which to look inward, and Americans wanted consumer goods to aid in such self-discovery. Dichter suggested that the fur industry capitalize on this change by emphasizing the versatility of fur and the role of objects more generally in fostering creative self-expression. The advertising office was where theory was put into practice. In that way, it is a uniquely generative though often overlooked space from which to look into the rise of the therapeutic culture.

Cost-effectively dissecting the genetic architecture of complex wool traits in rabbits by low-coverage sequencing.

BACKGROUND: Rabbit wool traits are important in fiber production and for model organism research on hair growth, but their genetic architecture remains obscure. In this study, we focused on wool characteristics in Angora rabbits, a breed well-known for the quality of its wool. Considering the cost to generate population-scale sequence data and the biased detection of variants using chip data, developing an effective genotyping strategy using low-coverage whole-genome sequencing (LCS) data is necessary to conduct genetic analyses. RESULTS: Different genotype imputation strategies (BaseVar + STITCH, Bcftools + Beagle4, and GATK + Beagle5), sequencing coverages (0.1X, 0.5X, 1.0X, 1.5X, and 2.0X), and sample sizes (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600) were compared. Our results showed that using BaseVar + STITCH at a sequencing depth of 1.0X with a sample size larger than 300 resulted in the highest genotyping accuracy, with a genotype concordance higher than 98.8% and genotype accuracy higher than 0.97. We performed multivariate genome-wide association studies (GWAS), followed by conditional GWAS and estimation of the confidence intervals of quantitative trait loci (QTL) to investigate the genetic architecture of wool traits. Six QTL were detected, which explained 0.4 to 7.5% of the phenotypic variation. Gene-level mapping identified the fibroblast growth factor 10 (FGF10) gene as associated with fiber growth and diameter, which agrees with previous results from functional data analyses on the FGF gene family in other species, and is relevant for wool rabbit breeding. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that LCS followed by imputation can be a cost-effective alternative to array and high-depth sequencing for assessing common variants. GWAS combined with LCS can identify new QTL and candidate genes that are associated with quantitative traits. This study provides a cost-effective and powerful method for investigating the genetic architecture of complex traits, which will be useful for genomic breeding applications.

Retrospective study of cutaneous neoplasms in horses treated at the Livestock Development Center of the Federal University of Bahia / Estudo retrospectivo das neoplasias cutâneas em equinos atendidos no Centro de Desenvolvimento da Pecuária da Universidade Federal da Bahia

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of cutaneous neoplasms in horses treated at the Center for the Development of Livestock at the Federal University of Bahia, as well as to correlate it with the coat color, breed, and age of the animal. For that, the attendance records for the last ten years were reviewed. When evaluating the files, 13 cases of cutaneous tumor in horses confirmed by histopathology and cytology were observed. The most prevalent skin tumors were sarcoid (38.5%), melanoma (23%), and fibrosarcoma (15.4%). Regarding the equine coat color, gray and sorrel horses were the most frequent with 30.7% and 23.1% of cases, respectively. As for the equine breed, the mangalarga marchador was the most prevalent (38.4%). Regarding age, 38.46% of the horses were up to 5 years old, 30.77% of the animals were between 4 and 10 years old, and 30.76% were between 11 and 16 years old. In the end, it can be concluded that sarcoid and melanoma were the most prevalent neoplasms.

Objetivou-se com este trabalho determinar a prevalência de neoplasias cutâneas em equinos atendidos no Centro de Desenvolvimento da Pecuária da Universidade Federal da Bahia, bem como correlaciona-la com a pelagem, raça e idade do animal. Para tanto revisou-se as fichas de atendimento dos últimos dez anos. Ao avaliar as fichas, observou-se 13 casos de tumor cutâneo em equinos confirmado por histopatologia ou citologia. Os tumores cutâneos mais prevalentes foram sarcoide (38,5%), melanoma (23%) e fibrossarcoma (15,4%). Com relação a pelagem, equinos tordilhos e alazões foram os mais frequentes com 30,7% e 23,1% dos casos, respectivamente. Quanto as raças, a mangalarga marchador foi a mais prevalente (38,4%). Em relação a idade, 38,46% dos equinos possuíam até 5 anos de idade, 30,77% dos animais apresentavam idade entre 4 e 10 anos e, 30,76% apresentavam idade entre 11 e 16 anos. Ao fim, pode-se concluir que o sarcoide e o melanoma foram as neoplasias mais prevalentes.

Seven Shades of Grey: A Follow-Up Study on the Molecular Basis of Coat Colour in Indicine Grey Cattle Using Genome-Wide SNP Data.

Shades of grey and brown are a dominant component in mammal coat colours, representing a fundamental trait involved in a great number of processes including cryptism, sexual selection and signalling. The genetic mechanisms of the grey colouration in mammals are very complex and controlled by hundreds of genes whose effects and interactions are still largely unclear. In this study, we adopted a robust multi-cohort Fst outlier approach based on pairwise contrasts between seven grey indicine cattle breeds and both taurine and indicine non-grey cattle breeds in order to find genomic regions potentially related to the grey colouration. On the basis of three main drawn settings, built in order to control both the effect of the sample size and the genetic structure, we have identified some signals common to those obtained in a previous work employing only taurine cattle. In particular, using the top 1% Fst approach, we detected a candidate region (22.6-23.8 megabases) on chromosome 14 in which genes related to pigmentation have been already documented. In addition, when we constructed a phylogenetic tree using the significant markers identified in this study and including also the genotyping data at these loci of both the grey taurine and the extinct wild auroch, we found a topological repartition consistent with breed colour pattern rather than with the known bovine evolutionary history. Thus, on the basis of this evidence, together with the geographical distribution of the current taurine grey cattle, an ancestral indicine origin for the grey phenotype would seem to be a conceivable interpretation. In this context, a higher thermo-tolerance and less UV-induced damage of the grey phenotype might have favoured the retention of advantageous genes into the taurine genome during the post-Neolithic human-mediated cattle expansions.

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics for the discrimination of animal fur types.

Rapid and reliable animal fur identification has remained a challenge for customs inspection. The accurate distinction between fur types has a significant meaning in implementing the correct tariff policy. A variety of analytical methods have been applied to work on distinguishing animal fur types, with tools of microscopy, molecular testing, mass spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and Raman spectroscopy. In this research, the capability of attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) combined with pattern recognition methods was investigated for the discrimination of animal fur in six types. This work was to explore the non-destructive application of ATR-FTIR technique in discriminant analysis of animal fur. All spectra were collected by ATR-FTIR of the wavenumber ranging from 4000 to 650 cm-1. Data pretreatments included moving average smoothing and multiplicative scatter correction (MSC). Four supervised classification algorithms were chosen to categorize the types of fur: soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA), principal component analysis linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA), partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), least squares support vector machine (LS-SVM). PLS-DA and LS-SVM were both effective approaches, with a 100% classification accuracy rate. The accuracy of PCA-LDA and SIMCA was 98.33% and 99.44%, respectively. Furthermore, LS-SVM model obtained using Monte-Carlo sampling method also obtained 100% prediction accuracy, while all other methods produced misclassification. LS-SVM corrected the non-linearities for the animal fur FTIR data but also remarkably improved the prediction performance level. The results of this study revealed that the combination of ATR-FTIR and chemometrics has a huge potential for animal fur discrimination.

Phylogeographic study using nuclear genome sequences of Asip to infer the origins of ventral fur color variation in the house mouse Mus musculus.

While the house mouse (Mus musculus), widely distributed in Eurasia, is known to have substantial coat color variation between and within local populations, in both primary and secondary distribution areas, including the Japanese archipelago, the evolutionary history of the color variation is poorly understood. To address the ventral fur color variation, we quantified the lightness of museum skin specimens, and found that the southern subspecies, M. m. castaneus (CAS), has high and low lightness in dry and rainy geographic regions, respectively. The northern subspecies, M. m. musculus (MUS), has low and high levels of lightness in the high and middle latitudes of northern Eurasia, respectively. We examined sequence variation of the agouti signaling protein gene (Asip), which is known to be responsible for the ventral fur color. We performed phylogenetic analyses with 196 haplotype sequences of Asip (~180 kb) generated by phasing the whole-genome data of 98 wild mice reported previously. Network and phylogenetic tree construction revealed clustering of haplotypes representing the two subspecies, MUS and CAS. A number of subclusters with geographic affinities appeared within the subspecies clusters, in which the essential results were consistent with those reconstructed with whole mitochondrial genome data, indicating that the phased haplotype genome sequences of the nuclear genome can be a useful tool for tracing the dispersal of geographical lineages. The results of phylogeographic analysis showed that CAS mice with darker ventral fur possessed similar Asip haplotypes across the geographic distribution, suggesting that these haplotypes are major causes of the historical introduction of Asip haplotypes for darker ventral fur in mice from northern India to the peripheral areas, including the Japanese archipelago. Similarly, MUS in East Asia, which has a white abdomen, formed an Asip haplogroup with that from northern Iran, also with a white abdomen.

Using mass spectrometry to investigate fluorescent compounds in squirrel fur.

While an array of taxa are capable of producing fluorescent pigments, fluorescence in mammals is a novel and poorly understood phenomenon. A first step towards understanding the potential adaptive functions of fluorescence in mammals is to develop an understanding of fluorescent compounds, or fluorophores, that are present in fluorescent tissue. Here we use Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) of flying squirrel fur known to fluoresce under ultraviolet (UV) light to identify potentially fluorescent compounds in squirrel fur. All of the potentially fluorescent compounds we identified were either present in non-fluorescent fur or were not present in all species of fluorescent flying squirrel. Therefore, we suggest that the compounds responsible for fluorescence in flying squirrels may also be present in non-fluorescent mammal fur. Some currently unexplained factor likely leads to excitation of fluorophores in flying squirrel fur. A recently suggested hypothesis that fluorescence in mammals is widely caused by porphyrins is consistent with our findings.

Independent DSG4 frameshift variants in cats with hair shaft dystrophy.

Investigations of hereditary phenotypes in spontaneous mutants may help to better understand the physiological functions of the altered genes. We investigated two unrelated domestic shorthair cats with bulbous swellings of the hair shafts. The clinical, histopathological, and ultrastructural features were similar to those in mice with lanceolate hair phenotype caused by loss-of-function variants in Dsg4 encoding desmoglein 4. We sequenced the genomes from both affected cats and compared the data of each affected cat to 61 control genomes. A search for private homozygous variants in the DSG4 candidate gene revealed independent frameshift variants in each case, c.76del or p.Ile26fsLeu*4 in case no. 1 and c.1777del or p.His593Thrfs*23 in case no. 2. DSG4 is a transmembrane glycoprotein located primarily in the extracellular part of desmosomes, a complex of adhesion molecules responsible for connecting the keratin intermediate filaments of neighbouring epithelial cells. Desmosomes are essential for normal hair shaft formation. Both identified DSG4 variants in the affected cats lead to premature stop codons and truncate major parts of the open-reading frame. We assume that this leads to a complete loss of DSG4 function, resulting in an incorrect formation of the desmosomes and causing the development of defective hair shafts. Together with the knowledge on the effects of DSG4 variants in other species, our data suggest that the identified DSG4 variants cause the hair shaft dystrophy. To the best of our knowledge, this study represents the first report of pathogenic DSG4 variants in domestic animals.

Identification of a novel missense mutation in the fibroblast growth factor 5 gene associated with longhair in the Maine Coon Cat.

Hair length can be a highly variable trait within the Felis catus species, varying between and within different cat breeds. Previous research has demonstrated this variability is due to recessive mutations within the fibroblast growth factor 5 (FGF5) gene. Following a genetic screen, four longhaired Maine Coons were identified that had only one copy of a known FGF5 mutation. We performed DNA sequencing on samples from two of these Maine Coons and identified a missense mutation in FGF5 c.577G > A p.Ala193Thr. Genetic screening via restriction digest was then performed on samples from the other two Maine Coons and an additional 273 cats of various breeds. This screening found that only the two additional Maine Coons were heterozygous for the novel variant. Furthermore, the novel variant was not identified after in silico analysis of 68 whole genome cat sequences from various breeds, demonstrating that this novel mutation is most likely a breed-specific variant for the Maine Coon, contributing to the longhair phenotype in about 3% of these cats.

Exposure of pregnant rats to stress and/or sertraline: Side effects on maternal health and neurobehavioral development of male offspring.

AIMS: Sertraline (SE) is one of the most prescribed medications for treating gestational depression, anxiety and stress. However, little is known about its effects on nervous-system development in offspring. Therefore, this study investigated the somatic, reflex and neurobehavioral development of rats exposed to SE during pregnancy, associated or not with stress. MAIN METHODS: Pregnant Wistar rats were assigned to the following groups (n = 10-8 rats/group): CO - control animals administered filtered water by gavage; SE - animals administered 20 mg/kg SE by gavage; ST - animals subjected to restraining stress and administered filtered water; ST/SE - animals subjected to restraining stress and administered 20 mg/kg SE. The treatment was administered between gestational days (GD) 13 to 20. Somatic and reflex developments were investigated in the male offspring from postnatal day (PND) 1 to 21. The elevated plus maze was performed on PND 25 and 80. The open field and light/dark box test were performed on PND 90 and 100, respectively. KEY FINDINGS: Body weight reduction and vaginal bleeding were observed in pregnant rats exposed to SE. The male offspring of the SE group showed delay in incisor eruption, fur development and negative geotaxis. In addition, the SE group was less exploratory (anxious personality) compared to the CO and ST groups. SIGNIFICANCE: The results obtained in the present study demonstrate that sertraline not only impairs maternal health, but also, associated or not with stress, can compromise the somatic, reflex and neurobehavioral development of male rats.

Effects of Cocoa Genotypes on Coat Color, Platelets and Coagulation Parameters in French Bulldogs.

A nonsense variant in HPS3, c.2420G>A or p.Trp807*, was recently discovered as the cause for a brown coat color termed cocoa in French Bulldogs. Here, we studied the genotype-phenotype correlation regarding coat color in HPS3 mutant dogs that carried various combinations of mutant alleles at other coat color genes. Different combinations of HPS3, MLPH and TYRP1 genotypes resulted in subtly different shades of brown coat colors. As HPS3 variants in humans cause the Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome type 3, which in addition to oculocutaneous albinism is characterized by a storage pool deficiency leading to bleeding tendency, we also investigated the phenotypic consequences of the HPS3 variant in French Bulldogs on hematological parameters. HPS3 mutant dogs had a significantly lowered platelet dense granules abundance. However, no increased bleeding tendencies in daily routine were reported by dog owners. We therefore conclude that in dogs, the phenotypic effect of the HPS3 variant is largely restricted to pigmentation. While an effect on platelet morphology is evident, we did not obtain any indications for major health problems associated with the cocoa coat color in French Bulldogs. Further studies will be necessary to definitely rule out very subtle effects on visual acuity or a clinically relevant bleeding disorder.

The PMEL gene and merle (dapple) in the dachshund: cryptic, hidden, and mosaic variants demonstrate the need for genetic testing prior to breeding.

One of the most unique coat color patterns in the domestic dog is merle (also known as dapple in the dachshund breed), characterized by patches of normal pigmentation surrounded by diluted eumelanin pigment. In dogs, this striking variegated pattern is caused by an insertion of a SINE element into the PMEL gene. Differences in the length of the SINE insertion [due to a variable-length poly(A)-tail] has been associated with variation in the merle coat color and patterning. We previously performed a systematic evaluation of merle in 175 Australian shepherds and related breeds and correlated the length of the merle insertion variants with four broad phenotypic clusters designated as "cryptic", "atypical", "classic", and "harlequin" merle. In this study, we evaluated the SINE insertions in 140 dachshunds and identified the same major merle phenotypic clusters with only slight variation between breeds. Specifically, we identified numerous cases of true "hidden" merle in dachshunds with light/red (pheomelanin) coats with little to no black/brown pigment (eumelanin) and thus minimal or no observable merle phenotype. In addition, we identified somatic and gonadal mosaicism, with one dog having a large insertion in the harlequin size range of M281 that had no merle phenotype and unintentionally produced a double merle puppy with anophthalmia. The frequent identification of cryptic, hidden, and mosaic merle variants, which can be undetectable by phenotypic inspection, should be of particular concern to breeders and illustrates the critical need for genetic testing for merle prior to breeding to avoid producing dogs with serious health problems.

Prevalence and in vitro antifungal susceptibility of commensal yeasts in the external ear canal of cats.

BACKGROUND: Lifestyle factors such as hair length, the frequency of ear cleaning and bathing, age, cat rearing, and sex may contribute to opportunistic yeast infections in the external ear canal of cats. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of commensal yeast organisms in cats' external ear canals, evaluate their predisposing lifestyle factors, and test the susceptibility of Malassezia pachydermatis to antifungal agents. RESULTS: A total of 53 cats (33 male and 20 female) seronegative for feline leukemia virus and feline immunodeficiency virus were enrolled in this study. Their mean age (± standard deviation) was 6.04 (± 3.49) years. Fungal cultures and polymerase chain reaction tests were performed to identify the yeast species derived from the external ear canal. The association between lifestyle factors and the presence of M. pachydermatis was evaluated using Fisher's exact test. The susceptibility of M. pachydermatis to antifungal agents was also analyzed. M. pachydermatis was the most frequently recovered yeast species, with a prevalence of 50.94 % (95 % confidence interval [CI]: 36.84-64.94 %). There was an association between hair length and a positive culture for M. pachydermatis (p = 0.0001). The odds of a negative culture for M. pachydermatis among short-haired cats was 11.67 (95 % CI, 3.22-42.24) times higher than that among long-haired cats (p = 0.0002). There was also an association between the frequency of ear cleaning and the presence of M. pachydermatis (p = 0.007). The odds of a negative culture for M. pachydermatis in cats that were receiving ear cleaning at intervals of ≤ 2 weeks was 5.78 (95 % CI, 1.67-19.94) times greater than that of cats receiving ear cleaning at intervals greater than 2 weeks or never (p = 0.0055). Ranges of minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimum fungicidal concentrations for itraconazole, ketoconazole, miconazole, and terbinafine against M. pachydermatis were ≤ 0.063-4 and ≤ 0.063-≥32, ≤ 0.063-8 and 0.125-≥32, ≤ 0.063-≥32 and 0.5-≥32, and ≤ 0.016-1 and 0.125-8 µg/ml, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: M. pachydermatis was the most commonly identified yeast organism in the external ear canal of healthy cats. Hair length and the frequency of ear cleaning played a role in the colonization of M. pachydermatis. The M. pachydermatis isolates had various MIC levels for common fungicides.

Thermal features, ambient temperature and hair coat lengths: Limitations of infrared imaging in pregnant primitive breed mares within a year.

Infrared thermography is a non-invasive technique which allows to distinguish between pregnant and non-pregnant animals. Detecting accurate body surface temperatures can be challenging due to external factors altering thermograph measurements. This study aimed to determine the associations between the ambient temperature, the hair coat features and the temperatures of mares' abdomens. It compared pregnant and non-pregnant mares throughout 11 months. The research was carried out on 40 Konik Polski mares, which were divided into pregnant and non-pregnant groups. The temperature (Tmax, maximal; Taver, average; Tmin, minimal) of the mares' abdomen was evaluated in two regions of interest: the whole area of the lateral surface of the mares' abdomen (Px1) and the flank area of the lateral surface of mares' abdomen (Px2). During the increasing period, the slopes in the linear regression equation did not differ significantly for ambient (Tamb) and surface temperatures in both groups. In the decreasing period, the slopes did not differ significantly for Tamb and Tmax in the non-pregnant group. They also did not differ for Tamb and Taver in Px1 and Tamb and Tmin in Px1 in both pregnant and non-pregnant groups respectively. Other slopes varied significantly (p < .001). There was no evidence of parallel changes in hair coat features and measured temperatures. The flank area appears more suitable for thermal imaging in pregnant mares due to the seasonal fluctuations in hair coat lengths.

Origin and population structure of Brazilian hair sheep breeds.

Brazilian hair sheep constitute a genetic diversity hotspot. These animals are found in the harsh environments of the Brazilian Northwest (semi-arid) region. Genotypes (50K SNP chip) from seven Brazilian sheep breeds (five hair and two coarse wool types) and 87 worldwide breeds were used to test for population structure, admixture and genetic diversity. Moreover, phylogenetic trees evaluating migration events between genetic groups were built. Brazilian Somali, a fat-tailed breed, had a close relationship with East African breeds and clustered distinctly from other Brazilian breeds. Brazilian Blackbelly and Barbados Blackbelly had a close relationship. The Morada Nova breed did not show close relationships with European or African breeds, revealing a single migration event from an Algerian hair breed. Brazilian Fat-tail and Morada Nova share a common ancestor, but the former showed introgressions from Brazilian Somali and Afrikaner breeds, explaining the fat-tail phenotype. The Santa Inês breed received a substantial contribution from Brazilian Bergamasca and showed an admixed origin with recent introgressions from other breeds, mainly from Suffolk. Furthermore, Brazilian Somali and Brazilian Fat-tail are the most endangered sheep genetic resources in Brazil and should be the focus for ex situ conservation programs. In conclusion, Brazilian hair sheep show an African origin and are characterized by diverse genetic composition, reinforcing the need for conservation of these genetic resources, and at the same time, this highly diverse group has variability that can be used in breeding programs.

A 1-bp deletion in Mc1r in a Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) from Sado Island, Japan gives rise to a yellowish color variant: an insight into mammalian MC1R variants.

The melanocortin-1 receptor gene (MC1R) controls production of the pigments eumelanin and pheomelanin. Changes in MC1R lead to variation in coat color in mammals, which can range from entirely black (melanism) to yellowish. In this study, we report a case of a wild-caught Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) from Sado Island, Japan with a yellowish coat color. Upon sequencing the whole coding region of the Mc1r gene (954 bp), we found a 1-bp deletion at site 337 (c.337del), indicative of a frameshift mutation, which was characterized as a severe loss-of-function or null mutation. A spectrophotometer was used to measure coat color, revealing that the rat had a distinctly lighter coat, based on lightness score, than mice with homozygous similar loss-of-function mutations. This implies that loss-of-function mutations can yield different phenotypes in murine rodents. The loss-of-function-mutant rat exhibited a contrasting coat pattern consisting of darker and lighter colors along its dorsal and ventral sides, respectively. Similar patterns have been observed in homozygous MC1R-deficient mutants in other mammals, implying that the countershading pattern can still be expressed despite the absence of MC1R in the melanocyte.

Variants at the ASIP locus contribute to coat color darkening in Nellore cattle.

BACKGROUND: Nellore cattle (Bos indicus) are well-known for their adaptation to warm and humid environments. Hair length and coat color may impact heat tolerance. The Nellore breed has been strongly selected for white coat, but bulls generally exhibit darker hair ranging from light grey to black on the head, neck, hump, and knees. Given the potential contribution of coat color variation to the adaptation of cattle populations to tropical and sub-tropical environments, our aim was to map positional and functional candidate genetic variants associated with darkness of hair coat (DHC) in Nellore bulls. RESULTS: We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for DHC using data from 432 Nellore bulls that were genotyped for more than 777 k single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. A single major association signal was detected in the vicinity of the agouti signaling protein gene (ASIP). The analysis of whole-genome sequence (WGS) data from 21 bulls revealed functional variants that are associated with DHC, including a structural rearrangement involving ASIP (ASIP-SV1). We further characterized this structural variant using Oxford Nanopore sequencing data from 13 Australian Brahman heifers, which share ancestry with Nellore cattle; we found that this variant originates from a 1155-bp deletion followed by an insertion of a transposable element of more than 150 bp that may impact the recruitment of ASIP non-coding exons. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the variant ASIP sequence causes darker coat pigmentation on specific parts of the body, most likely through a decreased expression of ASIP and consequently an increased production of eumelanin.

Generation of VEGF knock-in Cashmere goat via the CRISPR/Cas9 system.

Cashmere is a rare and specialised animal fibre, which grows on the outer skin of goats. Owing its low yield and soft, light, and warm properties, it has a high economic value. Here, we attempted to improve existing cashmere goat breeds by simultaneously increasing their fibre length and cashmere yield. We attempted this by knocking in the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) at the fibroblast growth factor 5(FGF5) site using a gene editing technology and then studying its hair growth-promoting mechanisms. We show that a combination of RS-1 and NU7441 significantly improve the efficiency of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated, homologous-directed repair without affecting the embryo cleavage rate or the percentages of embryos at different stages. In addition, we obtained a cashmere goat, which integrated the VEGF gene at the FGF5 site, and the cashmere yield and fibre length of this gene-edited goat were improved. Through next-generation sequencing, we found that the up-regulation of VEGF and the down-regulation of FGF5 affected the cell cycle, proliferation, and vascular tone through the PI3K-AKT signalling pathway and at extracellular matrix-receptor interactions. Owing to this, the gene-edited cashmere goat showed impressive cashmere performance. Overall, in this study, we generated a gene-edited cashmere goat by integrating VEGF at the FGF5 site and provided an animal model for follow-up research on hair growth mechanisms.

An effective analytical droplet digital PCR approach for identification and quantification of fur-bearing animal meat in raw and processed food.

Available nuclear gene sequences for meat detection are still rare and little applicability in the investigation of new types of meat adulteration such as fox, mink and raccoon dog was performed. In the present work, we developed a reliable qualitative and quantitative detection method for fur-bearing animal meat based on droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). Three sets of primers and probes targeted nuclear genes for fox, mink and raccoon dog were designed for ddPCR system; In addition, turkey was selected as internal reference to transform the copy numbers to the fraction of target species. Results indicated that the dynamic ranges of three fur-bearing animals were all from 1% to 90%; the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) for three fur-bearing animals were same, with LOD 0.1% (w/w) and LOQ 1% (w/w). Moreover, we confirmed that different additives had no effect on quantification accuracy in the ddPCR assay.