Isolation and Characterization of a Sheep Cysteine-Rich Cuticle Keratin Pseudogene

Researchers characterized a sheep cuticle keratin gene and identified a related pseudogene through sequencing. This pseudogene, which arose from gene duplication, was non-functional due to key mutations in its promoter and processing signals, as well as the presence of two in-frame termination codons. A recombination point between sequences encoding glycine-rich repeats may have contributed to these termination codons. The study highlighted the evolutionary conservation of cysteine-rich keratin proteins and provided insights into the genetic mechanisms leading to pseudogene formation.