Fig 1.
Wool characterization of the Hetian sheep based on the high and low wool density.
(A) The wool samples of the HS. (B) The wool samples of the HP. (C) Microstructure of fine wool and coarse wool.
Table 1.
Comparison of the wool traits of the Hetian sheep.
Fig 2.
Skin morphology of the Hetian sheep with high and low wool density (100×).
(A) Cross-sections of the sheepskin in the HS group. (B) Cross-sections of the sheepskin in the HP group. PF: primary hair follicle; SF: secondary hair follicle; SG: sebaceous gland.
Table 2.
Comparison of the parameters of the hair follicles of the Hetian sheep.
Fig 3.
Preliminary analysis of the gene expression.
(A) Heat map of gene expression correlation between samples. (B) Volcano plot of DEG screening. (C) Hierarchical clustering heat map of DEGs.
Fig 4.
GO analysis of DEGs.
Fig 5.
(A) Primary and secondary KEGG classifications of DEGs. (B) Twenty-eight signaling pathways in environmental information processing. The circle size represents the number of genes and the color signifies P-value.
Table 3.
The DEGs enriched the pathways related to environmental information processing.
Fig 6.
PPI network and hub clustering modules.
(A) PPI network analysis for DEGs that were enriched in environmental information processing. (B) Cluster 1 (MCODE score = 4.0). (C) Cluster 2 (MCODE score = 3.4). (D) Cluster 3 (MCODE score = 3.3). (E) The interaction network of the top 10 genes. Red color represents the genes that were up-regulated and green color represents the down-regulated genes. The width of the edges has been related to the combined score between the two nodes. A wider edge indicates a larger combined score.
Table 4.
Expression of KAP and KIF genes.
Fig 7.
Eight genes selected for qPCR verification.
(A) Electropherogram of the test genes and the internal reference gene (GAPDH). (B) Eight genes for qPCR detection and RNA-seq results. The left axis of the histogram represents the gene expression level, and the right axis of the histogram represents the FPKM value of the sequencing data. HS refers to the skin in the high wool density group, and HP refers to the skin in the low wool density group. (*p < 0.05 and **p < 0.01).