Identification of the Keratin-Associated Protein 13-3 (KAP13-3) Gene in Sheep

    January 2011 in “ Open Journal of Genetics ”
    Hua Gong, Huitong Zhou, Jolon M. Dyer, Jeffrey E. Plowman, Jon G. H. Hickford
    From the encyclopedia
    Serine →
    threonine →
    Studysummary In this study, researchers identified five unique sequences of the ovine KAP13-3 gene, with potential implications for wool traits due to observed amino acid changes. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.
    The study identified the KAP13-3 gene in 147 New Zealand Romney cross-bred sheep, revealing it as an intronless gene encoding a cysteine-rich polypeptide with high serine and threonine content, which could be phosphorylated to influence keratin assembly and wool traits. Five different alleles (A-E) were observed with varying frequencies. The ovine KAP13-3 gene showed greater similarity to the bovine KRTAP13-3 than to human sequences, indicating evolutionary divergence after the sheep-cattle split but before primates. The research suggested that amino acid substitutions could impact protein charge and phosphorylation, thereby affecting wool quality.
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