Jin, Yuanting;
Y C Brandt, Débora;
Li, Jiasheng;
Wo, Yubin;
Tong, Haojie;
Shchur, Vladimir;
(2021)
Elevation as a selective force on mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes of the Phrynocephalus lizards in the Tibetan plateau.
Current Zoology
, 67
(2)
pp. 191-199.
10.1093/cz/zoaa056.
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Abstract
Animals living in extremely high elevations have to adapt to low temperatures and low oxygen availability (hypoxia), but the underlying genetic mechanisms associated with these adaptations are still unclear. The mitochondrial respiratory chain can provide >95% of the ATP in animal cells, and its efficiency is influenced by temperature and oxygen availability. Therefore, the respiratory chain complexes (RCCs) could be important molecular targets for positive selection associated with respiratory adaptation in high-altitude environments. Here, we investigated positive selection in 5 RCCs and their assembly factors by analyzing sequences of 106 genes obtained through RNA-seq of all 15 Chinese Phrynocephalus lizard species, which are distributed from lowlands to the Tibetan plateau (average elevation >4,500 m). Our results indicate that evidence of positive selection on RCC genes is not significantly different from assembly factors, and we found no difference in selective pressures among the 5 complexes. We specifically looked for positive selection in lineages where changes in habitat elevation happened. The group of lineages evolving from low to high altitude show stronger signals of positive selection than lineages evolving from high to low elevations. Lineages evolving from low to high elevation also have more shared codons under positive selection, though the changes are not equivalent at the amino acid level. This study advances our understanding of the genetic basis of animal respiratory metabolism evolution in extreme high environments and provides candidate genes for further confirmation with functional analyses.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Elevation as a selective force on mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes of the Phrynocephalus lizards in the Tibetan plateau |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/cz/zoaa056 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoaa056 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) (2020). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Editorial Office, Current Zoology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com |
| Keywords: | elevation, plateau, positive selection, reptile, respiratory chain complexes |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10164888 |
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