The Inner Mongolian cashmere goat is a major Chinese goat breed that can be categorized into long-haired, short-haired, and intermediate-haired types on the basis of hair characteristics. Previous research by our team revealed that genes influencing different hair types are enriched primarily in KEGG pathways such as lipid metabolism. However, the effects of lipid compounds on cashmere goat hair types remain unclear. In this study, skin tissue samples were collected from the scapular region of long-haired and short-haired Inner Mongolian cashmere goats during the anagen (September), catagen (December), and telogen (March) phases of the hair follicle growth cycle, followed by lipidomics analysis. A total of 359 lipid compounds were found to be differentially expressed between the hair types. KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids and sphingolipid metabolism were the most significantly enriched pathways. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) of the lipidomics dataset identified 11 modules, among which the pink module showed the strongest association with hair types, which contained a large number of triglyceride lipids. Further screening identified 31 lipid compositions associated with hair type variation, including arecoline, linoleyl carnitine, spermine, arachidic acid, and several triglycerides. Several of these lipid compounds were significantly correlated with hair growth related genes such as FGF5, FGF22, CTNNAL1, and LSAMP. These findings suggest that skin lipid compounds contribute to hair types regulation in Inner Mongolian cashmere goats and provide new insights into the mechanisms of hair growth in cashmere goats.
Li et al. (Mon,) studied this question.