The sheep KAP8-2 gene, a new KAP8 family member that is absent in humans

The keratin-associated proteins (KAPs) are fundamental components of hair and wool fibres, and are believed to in part be responsible for some of the properties of these fibres. KAPs can be divided into three groups: the high sulphur (HS) KAPs, the ultra-high sulphur (UHS) KAPs and the high glycine-tyrosine (HGT) KAPs. KAP8 is a HGT-KAP family and was believed to be coded for by a single gene in both humans and sheep. However the recent identification of a KAP8-2 gene in goats led us to investigate whether a KAP8-2 gene exists in sheep. A BLAST search of the Ovine Genome Assembly v2.0 using the coding sequence of caprine KRTAP8-2 identified a homologous region on sheep chromosome 1 (OAR1:123005473_123005664; E = e−101). This region was clustered with a number of previously identified KAP genes including (in order from the centromere) KRTAP11-1, KRTAP7-1, KRTAP8-1, KRTAP6-2, KRTAP6-1, KRTAP13-3 and KRTAP24-1. PCR-SSCP analysis of the notional gene revealed two dissimilar PCR-SSCP banding patterns, representing two DNA sequences. A single nucleotide difference 21 bp upstream of the TATA box was identified. The two sequences did not have great homology with known ovine KRTAP sequences, but high sequence identity was found with KRTAP8-2 from goats and reindeer. These results suggest that sheep possess a KAP8-2 gene and that this gene is polymorphic. The notional KAP8-2 protein is comprised of 63 amino acid residues and is rich in glycine and tyrosine, but has a low cysteine content. In contrast to other HGT-KAPs, ovine KAP8-2 contains more acidic amino acid residues, and this would likely result in a lower isoelectric point (pI) of 6.3.