De novo assembly and characterization of skin transcriptome using RNAseq in sheep (Ovis aries)

The study utilized RNA sequencing to perform de novo transcriptome assembly of sheep skin, aiming to understand the molecular mechanisms of wool follicle development. Using the Illumina Hiseq 2000 system, over 26 million clean reads were assembled into 79,741 unigene sequences. Of these, 22,164 unigenes were annotated and categorized into 218 signaling pathways, with 17 pathways related to hair follicle development. This research provided a valuable resource for future genetic and genomic studies in sheep, with potential applications in improving wool quality and serving as a model for human hair follicle research and disease prevention.