Adaptive methylation regulation of p53 pathway in sympatric speciation of blind mole rats, Spalax.

ABSTRACT: Epigenetic modifications play significant roles in adaptive evolution. The tumor suppressor p53, well known for controlling cell fate and maintaining genomic stability, is much less known as a master gene in environmental adaptation involving methylation modifications. The blind subterranean mole rat Spalax eherenbergi superspecies in Israel consists of four species that speciated peripatrically. Remarkably, the northern Galilee species Spalax galili (2n = 52) underwent adaptive ecological sympatric speciation, caused by the sharply divergent chalk and basalt ecologies. This was demonstrated by mitochondrial and nuclear genomic evidence. Here we show that the expression patterns of the p53 regulatory pathway diversified between the abutting sympatric populations of S. galili in sharply div

SUBMITTER: Zhao Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4776458 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature