Fig. 7

Further experiments carried out to verify the candidate signaling pathway. a The overlap of upregulated DEGs and differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in ALC wool skin tissue at P30. b The overlap of downregulated DEGs and DEPs in ALC wool skin lamb tissue at P30. c The luciferase reporter assays were performed to determine functional sITS-miRNA target sites. d The luciferase reporter assays were performed to determine functional oar-miR-668-5p target sites. e The PRM-MS results of selected DEPs in the validation cohort (n = 3, P < 0.05). f Western blot analysis of the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway with overexpressed sITS-miRNA and its negative control in sheep fetal fibroblast cells. g Relative expression level of mTOR, AKT, and PI3K protein after overexpressing sITS-miRNA and its negative control in sheep fetal fibroblast cells (grayscale analysis) using ImageJ software, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01. h Western blot analysis of PI3K/AKT/mTOR signal pathway with the overexpressed miRNA pool, inhibitor pool, and negative control in sheep fetal fibroblast cells. i Relative expression level of mTOR, AKT, and PI3K protein after overexpressing the miRNA pool, inhibitor pool, and negative control in sheep fetal fibroblast cells (grayscale analysis) using ImageJ software, *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001