The Yangtze River Delta white goat is a rare goat species capable of producing high-quality brush hair. Dual specificity protein phosphatase 1 (DUSP1) may play a role in the formation of high-quality brush hair, as evidenced by our previous research. We investigated the potential mechanisms that regulate the proliferation and apoptosis of goat hair follicle stem cells. We particularly focused on the relationship between DUSP1 and miR-101, which directly targets DUSP1, predicted and screened through bioinformatics websites. Then, fluorescence assays, flow cytometry, RT-qPCR, and Western blotting were used to investigate the effects of miR-101 on the proliferation and apoptosis of hair follicle stem cells. We found that miR-101 overexpression significantly decreased (p < 0.01) apoptosis and promoted the proliferation of hair follicle stem cells. Furthermore, the overexpression of miR-101 increased (p < 0.05) the mRNA and protein expression levels of the proliferation-related gene (PCNA) and anti-apoptotic gene (Bcl-2), and it decreased (p < 0.05) the mRNA and protein expression levels of the apoptotic gene (Bax). In conclusion, miR-101 can promote the proliferation of and inhibit the apoptosis of hair follicle stem cells by targeting DUSP1, which provides a theoretical basis for further elucidating the molecular mechanism that regulates the production of high-quality brush hair of Yangtze River Delta white goats.
Keywords: DUSP1; Yangtze River Delta white goat; apoptosis; hair follicle stem cells; miR-101; proliferation; superior-quality brush hair trait.