Understanding fibre related genes and their association with fibre quality attributes in small ruminants – A review

Sheep and goat are two species of small ruminants that produce different kinds of fibres that differ in their characteristics mainly on the breed-wise basis. On one hand, Pashmina breeds produce the fine type of fibre while breeds of South India produce fibre that is not much fine. Cashmere and Mohair are important fine fibres having immense demand in international markets. Understanding the pathways for genesis, development and differentiation of fibres have the potential to help us in manipulating the breeding plans for efficient fibre production from these sheep breeds. Keratin forms an important part of the wool fibre and determines the most part of its structure and physical characteristics. Different studies have aimed at elucidating the polymorphism and association thereby with different fibre characteristics. Two multi-gene families have been reported for Keratin, the type I (acidic) and type II (basic) families. Application of results from these studies is surely going to help reap rich benefits if applied meticulously into the existing breeding plans for these species. A standard set of abbreviated coding pattern has been proposed recently regarding the nomenclature of different KAP genes and proteins.