Selection Signatures Analysis Reveals Genes Associated with High-Altitude Adaptation in Tibetan Goats from Nagqu, Tibet

Animals

Kai Quan¹  Yongbin Liu²  Mingxing Chu³  Meilin Jin³  Ran Di³  Huihua Wang³  Xiaojuan Fei³  Caihong Wei³  Zengkui Lu⁴  Jian Lu⁵ 

[1] College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy, Zhengzhou 450046, China;Inner Mongolia Academy of Animal Husbandry Science, Hohhot 010031, China;Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100193, China;Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730050, China;National Animal Husbandry Service, Beijing 100193, China;

关键词: high-altitude adaptation;    Tibetan goat;    selection signal;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ani10091599

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Tibetan goat is an ancient breed, which inhabits the adverse conditions of the plateaus in China. To investigate the role of selection in shaping its genomes, we genotyped Tibetan goats (Nagqu Prefecture, above 4500 m) and three lowland populations (Xinjiang goats, Taihang goats and Huanghuai goats). The result of PCA, neighbor-joining (N-J) tree and model-based clustering showed that the genetic structure between the Tibetan goat and the three lowland populations has significant difference. As demonstrated by the di statistic, we found that some genes were related to the high-altitude adaptation of Tibetan goats. Functional analysis revealed that these genes were enriched in the VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) signaling pathway and melanoma, suggesting that nine genes (FGF2, EGFR, AKT1, PTEN, MITF, ENPEP, SIRT6, KDR, and CDC42) might have important roles in the high-altitude adaptation of Nagqu Tibetan goats. We also found that the LEPR gene was under the strongest selection (di value = 16.70), and it could induce upregulation of the hypoxic ventilatory response. In addition, five genes (LEPR, LDB1, EGFR, NOX4 and FGF2) with high di values were analyzed using q-PCR. Among them, we found that LEPR, LDB1 and FGF2 exhibited higher expression in the lungs of the Tibetan goats; LEPR, EGFR and LDB1 exhibited higher expression in the hearts of the Huanghuai goat. Our results suggest that LEPR, LDB1, EGFR and FGF2 genes may be related to the high-altitude adaptation of the goats. These findings improve our understanding of the selection of the high-altitude adaptability of the Nagqu Tibetan goats and provide new theoretical knowledge for the conservation and utilization of germplasm resources.

【 授权许可】

Unknown