An international team is said to have sequenced the sheep genome, pinpointing genes that are unique to sheep, including those that help support secretion of grease needed to maintain wool.

The researchers, which included Jo-Ann Stanton of University of Otago, New Zealand, compared the genetic underpinnings of sheep to other mammals and identified genes that could explain the sheep’s specialised digestive system and unique fat metabolism process that helps maintain its thick, woolly coat, New Zealand’s education agency, ENZ, said.

Stanton, who is in the department of anatomy, is a co-author on the paper detailing the genome, which appears in the latest edition of the leading international journal Science. The work was undertaken by the International Sheep Genome Consortium and Stanton and her team worked closely with colleagues from AgResearch on the project, Education New Zealand said in a release.

In the paper, Stanton says because sheep were an important agricultural species, the results of this effort could provide crucial resources for future research on this animal. “Sheep… have a unique digestive organ, the rumen, which turns plant material into a source of protein, and is found in other ruminants, including sheep, deer and cattle,” she said, adding that beyond nutrition, the team proposed an absence of expression of a distinctive fatty acid in the skin is linked to wool synthesis.

The researchers assembled the reference genome sequences of Texel sheep, a breed originally from the Netherlands, for their study.

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