Overproduction of livestock manure can cause significant environmental challenges. Compost bedding (CB) is considered an effective approach for recycling the agricultural byproducts and improving the welfare of dairy cattle. During the CB preparing, the composition of microbial communities is usually altered; however, the patterns and drivers of CB microbial communities remains to be investigated. The current study aimed to explore the dynamics of bacterial and fungal communities during the various padded stages, using high throughput sequencing technology and qPCR. The relationships across physicochemical parameters, microbial community composition, and abundance were also evaluated. Sequencing results revealed that Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes of bacteria, and Ascomycota of fungi as the major phyla found in CB. qPCR results showed a significant increase in the number of bacterial genome copies from 1.20 × 10 7 to 3.35 × 10 7 copies/gram of dry soil, while the number of fungal genome copies significantly increased from 8.43 × 10 4 to 7.02 × 10 6 copies/gram of dry soil. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) showed that Actinobacteria was the primary indicator in raw materials while the phylum Bacteroidetes was in the other padded stages. Dothideomycetes was significantly enriched in the initial stage of fungi, whereas Sordariomycetes, including a pathogen Scedosporium prolificans, was the major indicator in CB after 9 days of padding. Mantel test showed that pH significantly influenced bacterial community composition while temperature and total organic carbon (TOC) had a significant effect on fungal community structure. Redundancy analysis indicated that TOC, temperature, and water content had a significant effect on bacterial abundance while total nitrogen, water content, and pH significantly affected fungal abundance. Our finding contributed to the understanding of microbial community succession in CB across different padded stages, and suggests CB management by changing the bedding material every 7 days.

Lymphatic enhancer factor 1 (Lef1) and distal-less homeobox 3 (Dlx3) are the transcription factors involved in regulating hair follicle development in mice, goats, and other animals. Their deletion can lead to hair follicle deficiency. In this study, hematoxylin–eosin staining (HE), real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR), immunohistochemistry, and immunofluorescence were used to analyze the expression, location, and biological functions of Lef1 and Dlx3 in the lateral skin of Gansu Alpine Merino aged 1, 30, 60, and 90 days. The results revealed that the number of hair follicles decreased with age and was significantly higher at 1 day than in the other three age groups (p < 0.05). The mRNA levels of Lef1 and Dlx3 in the skin of 30-day old Gansu Alpine Merino were significantly higher than those in the other three age groups (p < 0.05). Protein expression of Lef1 and Dlx3 was lowest at 1 day (p < 0.05) and peaked at 60 days. Lef1 and Dlx3 exhibited a high density and strong positive expression in the dermal papillae; additionally, Dlx3 exhibited a high density and strong positive expression in the inner and outer root sheaths. Collectively, Lef1 and Dlx3 may facilitate the maturation of secondary hair follicles, which is mainly achieved through the dermal papillae and inner and outer root sheaths.

The Tibetan sheep is an indigenous species of the Tibetan plateau and has been well adapted to high-altitude hypoxia. In comparison to lowland sheep breeds, the blood gas indicators have changed and the HIFs signaling pathway is activated in Tibetan sheep. These phenotypic and genetic alterations in Tibetan sheep are thought to be an important basis for adaptation to high-altitude hypoxia and variation in genes encoding the subunits that make up HIFs, such as HIF-1α can affect blood gas indicators. In this study, exons 9, 10, 12 of the HIF-1α gene were sequenced to find variations and 3 SNPs were detected, and these 3 SNPs were genotyped by KASP in 341 Hu sheep and 391 Tibetan sheep. In addition, 197 Hu sheep, 160 Tibetan sheep and 12 Gansu alpine merino sheep were used for blood gas indicators analysis. The results showed significant differences between the blood gas indicators of high-altitude breeds (Tibetan sheep and Gansu alpine merino sheep) and low-altitude breeds (Hu sheep), implying that the differences in blood gas indicators are mainly caused by differences in altitude. The haplotype combinations H2H3 and H1H3 were more frequent in the Tibetan sheep population, H2H3 increases O2 carrying capacity by increasing hematocrit and hemoglobin concentrations; H1H3 makes O2 dissociate more readily from oxyhemoglobin by decreasing partial pressure of oxygen and oxygen saturation. These results suggest that variants at the HIF-1α promote the ability of oxygen utilization in Tibetan sheep, which may underpin the survival and reproduction of Tibetan sheep on the Tibetan plateau.

The Tibetan sheep is an indigenous species on the Tibetan plateau with excellent adaptability to high-altitude hypoxia and is distributed at altitudes of 2500–5000 m. The high-altitude hypoxia adaptation of Tibetan sheep requires adaptive reshaping of multiple tissues and organs, especially the lungs. To reveal the mechanisms of adaptation at the tissue and molecular levels in the lungs of Tibetan sheep under hypoxic conditions at different altitudes, we performed light and electron microscopic observations, transcriptomic sequencing, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay studies on the lungs of Tibetan sheep from three altitudes (2500, 3500, and 4500 m). The results showed that in addition to continuous increase in pulmonary artery volume, thickness, and elastic fiber content with altitude, Tibetan sheep increase the hemoglobin concentration at an altitude of 3500 m, while they decrease the Hb concentration and increase the surface area of gas exchange and capacity of the blood at an altitude of 4500 m. Other than that, some important differentially expressed genes related to angiogenesis (FNDC1, HPSE, and E2F8), vasomotion and fibrogenesis (GJA4, FAP, COL1A1, COL1A2, COL3A1, and COL14A1), and gas transport (HBB, HBA1, APOLD1, and CHL1) were also identified; these discoveries at the molecular level explain to some extent the physiological findings. In conclusion, the lungs of Tibetan sheep adopt different strategies when adapting to different altitudes, and these findings are valuable for understanding the basis of survival of indigenous species on the Tibetan plateau.

Five keratin-associated protein 6 genes (KRTAP6) have been identified in sheep and variation in some KRTAP6 has been associated with wool fibre diameter-related traits, but none of these homologues has been identified in goats. In this study, we reported the identification of the sheep KRTAP6-5 homologue on goat chromosome 1 and PCR-single strand conformation polymorphism analysis in 300 Longdong cashmere goats revealed the existence of twelve variant sequences. Both coding region and 3’UTR of the putative caprine KRTAP6-5 displayed a biggest sequence similarity to ovine KRTAP6-5 gene. This suggested that the gene represents caprine KRTAP6-5 sequences, and these sequences composed twenty three genotypes which was the most polymorphism gene in KRTAPs that have been studied. Among these sequences, fifteen nucleotide substitutions and a 24-bp insertion/detection were identified. Variation in goat KRTAP6-5 was associated with variation in mean fibre diameter, suggesting that KRTAP6-5 is worthy of further study in the context of variation in cashmere traits.