MicroRNA‐5110 regulates pigmentation by cotargeting melanophilin and WNT family member 1

What is it about?

The hair colors of mammalians are decided mainly by genetics. More and more microRNAs have been identified to take part in the molecular mechanism of hair color formation. Melanophilin (MLPH) and Wnt family member 1 (Wnt1) were predicted the two target genes of microRNA-5110. Here, we found that microRNA-5110 regulated the Rab27a/myosin Va and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways by co-targeting MLPH and Wnt1, which resulted in up-regulated eumelanin production through TYRP2 and down-regulated pheomelanin production through TYR in alpaca melanocytes. Thus, we believe that microRNA-5110 has an important functional role in the regulation of melanin production, transportation system and can act as a promising target microRNA to produce environmentally-friendly "green" products to the wool industry.

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