Comparative transcriptomic analysis revealed adaptation mechanism of Phrynocephalus erythrurus, the highest altitude Lizard living in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Organisms living at high altitudes must overcome three major environmental challenges: hypoxia, cold, and intense UV radiation. The molecular mechanisms that enable these challenges to be overcome have mainly been studied in endothermic organisms; relatively little attention has been paid to poikilothermic species. Here, we present deep transcriptome sequencing in two closely related lizards, the high altitude-dwelling Phrynocephalus erythrurus and the lowland-dwelling P. putjatia, to identify candidate genes under positive selection and to explore the convergent evolutionary adaptation of poikilothermic animals to high altitude life.

Results

More than 70 million sequence reads were generated for each species via Illumina sequencing. De novo assembly produced 56,8

SUBMITTER: Yang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4450828 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature