Adaptive Changes in Hemoglobin Function in High-Altitude Tibetan Canids Were Derived via Gene Conversion and Introgression.

ABSTRACT: A key question in evolutionary biology concerns the relative importance of different sources of adaptive genetic variation, such as de novo mutations, standing variation, and introgressive hybridization. A corollary question concerns how allelic variants derived from these different sources may influence the molecular basis of phenotypic adaptation. Here, we use a protein-engineering approach to examine the phenotypic effect of putatively adaptive hemoglobin (Hb) mutations in the high-altitude Tibetan wolf that were selectively introgressed into the Tibetan mastiff, a high-altitude dog breed that is renowned for its hypoxia tolerance. Experiments revealed that the introgressed coding variants confer an increased Hb-O2 affinity in conjunction with an enhanced Bohr effect. We also document t

SUBMITTER: Signore AV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6759075 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature