Different gene expressions between cattle and yak provide insights into high‐altitude adaptation

DNA sequence variation has been widely reported as the genetic basis for adaptation, in both humans and other animals, to the hypoxic environment experienced at high altitudes. However, little is known about the patterns of gene expression underlying such hypoxic adaptations. In this study, we exami...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Animal genetics 2016-02, Vol.47 (1), p.28-35
Main Authors:	Wang, K, Yang, Y, Wang, L, Ma, T, Shang, H, Ding, L, Han, J, Qiu, Q
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Acclimatization - genetics Adaptation Altitude amino acid sequences Animals Bos grunniens Bovidae Cattle Cattle - classification Cattle - genetics coevolution Deoxyribonucleic acid differentially expressed genes DNA Gene expression gene expression regulation Gene sequencing Genes heart humans Hypoxia Hypoxia - genetics hypoxia adaptation Kidney - metabolism Kidneys Liver Liver - metabolism Lung - metabolism Lungs Myocardium - metabolism Nucleotide sequence nucleotide sequences Optimization Organs oxygen Proteins Sequence Analysis, RNA Transcriptome yak yaks
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Summary:	DNA sequence variation has been widely reported as the genetic basis for adaptation, in both humans and other animals, to the hypoxic environment experienced at high altitudes. However, little is known about the patterns of gene expression underlying such hypoxic adaptations. In this study, we examined the differences in the transcriptomes of four organs (heart, kidney, liver and lung) between yak and cattle, a pair of closely related species distributed at high and low altitudes respectively. Of the four organs examined, heart shows the greatest differentiation between the two species in terms of gene expression profiles. Detailed analyses demonstrated that some genes associated with the oxygen supply system and the defense systems that respond to threats of hypoxia are differentially expressed. In addition, genes with significantly differentiated patterns of expression in all organs exhibited an unexpected uniformity of regulation along with an elevated frequency of nonsynonymous substitutions. This co‐evolution of protein sequences and gene expression patterns is likely to be correlated with the optimization of the yak metabolic system to resist hypoxia.
ISSN:	0268-9146 1365-2052