Comparative Sequence Analysis of Keratin Associated Protein (KAP 7.1) Gene in Two Indigenous Pashmina Goat Breeds of India

The main structural proteins of hair fibre are keratin-associated proteins (KAPs). In association with keratin protein their content in fibre determines its quality (Jin et al., 2011). KAPs play a vital role in structural and mechanical properties of wool fibre (Liu et al., 2014). Keratin proteins are encoded by two multi gene families type I (acidic) and type II (basic), so the keratin content and structure are more stable in the different species hair, but KAPs differs enormously as they are encoded by large multigene families, which are to be categorized into high sulphur KAP, ultra-high sulphur KAP and high glycinetyrosine KAPs (Langbein et al.,2001; Rogers et al., 2002; Yin J et al., 2004. The glycine/tyrosine-rich KAPs, are smallest of the hair keratins (Mr = 6,000-9,000) and were originally separated into two groups on the basis of amino acid content and solubility (Powell and Rogers, 1997), type I (KAP7 and 8), and type II (KAP6 family). These proteins are rich in glycine, tyrosine, serine, and phenylalanine, accounting for ~50 mol % of International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 9 (2017) pp. 3314-3318 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com