Identification and analysis of key genes and signaling pathways involved in sheep wool diameter

Sheep wool is a very important raw material for the textile industry. Since fiber diameter is one of the most important economic characteristics of sheep wool, identification of genes regulating this characteristic offers an opportunity to increase productivity and improving product quality and variety of product. various researches have been conducted and various genes have been identified in relation to wool production. Each gene may be involved in different biological pathways, and the identification of these biological pathways and the genes that make up them will create a broader view and a more complete understanding of the complex genetic mechanism of the phenotype of productive traits, which can be achieved through the identification of biological biomarkers. For production traits, it is a useful step toward improving breeding. The data used in this research were downloaded from the GEO database with the access number GSE85844 and were analyzed in order to measure quality and uniformity. In order to identify genes with expression differences, a series of thresholds were considered, which include P-value and Fold Change. String software was used for ontology analysis and Cytoscape software with the cytoHubba plugin was used for network analysis. A total of 702 genes with different expressions were identified, which are involved in 37 biological pathways related to the production of wool follicles. The results of the network analysis identified 11 hub genes that affect wool growth and diameter. These results provide valuable resources for increasing the quality and production of sheep wool.