Fine-Wool Sheep Skin Single-Cell RNA-Seq Atlas for Fiber Diameter Analysis

Tong Xiao published a single-cell RNA sequencing atlas of skin tissues from six half-sibling fine-wool sheep on figshare in 2026. The dataset contains 59,732 high-quality cells systematically annotated into 14 distinct cell types, including dermal papilla cells and hair follicle stem cells. It was created to study the genetic underpinnings of wool fiber diameter.

Use Cases

• Identify cell-type-specific gene expression profiles based on the 14 annotated cell types.
• Analyze cell-cell communication networks based on the ligand-receptor pairs identified in the study.
• Reconstruct developmental trajectories of epidermal lineage cells using pseudotime analysis.
• Validate candidate genes like CRABP1 for their role in dermal papilla cell proliferation and wool fineness.

Strengths

• Dataset contains 59,732 high-quality single cells.
• Cells are annotated into 14 distinct types using known marker genes.
• Includes data from three experimental groups (ultra-fine, medium-fine, fine wool) for comparison.
• Released under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset is small at 94.0 KB, indicating limited scope or summary-level data.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Tong Xiao.

Collection Method

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) performed on skin tissues from six half-sibling fine-wool sheep reared under identical conditions.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-01 05:25:35; freshness should be verified.