Genome-Wide Detection of RNA Editing Events During the Hair Follicles Cycle of Tianzhu White Yak

The study investigated the role of RNA editing in the hair follicle cycle of the Tianzhu white yak. Researchers analyzed RNA-seq data from 15 skin samples and identified 56,994 RNA editing sites, with adenosine-to-guanosine (A-to-G+) being the most common type, accounting for 95.99% of the sites. Most editing events occurred in intergenic regions (65.31%), with 69.64% of those in the coding sequence region causing missense changes in protein sequence. The study found that RNA editing can influence hair cycle-related genes by altering miRNA regulation, with 202 editing sites causing a gain of miRNA binding targets in 23 genes. The research also identified that genes with dynamically changed editing levels during the hair follicle cycle were enriched in several skin development, hair growth, and hair follicle cycling pathways. The study concluded that RNA editing plays a significant role in the hair follicle cycle of the Tianzhu white yak.