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RESEARCH PRODUCT
Genome-wide adaptive complexes to underground stresses in blind mole rats Spalax
Xiangke LiaoShaoliang PengAaron AviviAnne BickerMark BandLily BazakKrzysztof GajdaSanyang LiuGideon RechaviThomas HankelnKexin LiJian MaEshel Ben JacobImad ShamsAndrei SeluanovMichael R. McgowenZhiyong HuangJun WangJun WangHarris A. LewinVera GorbunovaYabing ZhuDenis M. LarkinDerek E. WildmanQiumei ZhengXuanting JiangJaebum KimJorge AzpuruaLu ZhangXiaoqian ZhuBinyamin A. KnisbacherJie ChenMarta FarréZhiqiang XiongAngela KranzSergey FeranchukYingqi XiongNoa SherYue FengAnders KroghWei ZhaoErez Y. LevanonXin ZhouLijuan HanAlla FishmanEviatar NevoHanno SchmidtLeonid BrodskyYao LuXiaodong FangAndrei V. GudkovJing ZhaoTobias MattheusShuai Cheng Lisubject
SpalaxGeneral Physics and AstronomyZoologyBiologyGenomeGeneral Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular BiologyEvolution MolecularHypercapniaTranscriptome03 medical and health sciences0302 clinical medicineStress PhysiologicalMoleAnimalsHypoxiaSpalax galiliShort Interspersed Nucleotide Elements030304 developmental biologyHigh rate0303 health sciencesGenomeMultidisciplinaryGene Expression ProfilingGeneral ChemistryDarknessbiology.organism_classificationAdaptation PhysiologicalEvolutionary biologySpalaxRNA EditingAdaptationTranscriptome030217 neurology & neurosurgerydescription
The blind mole rat (BMR), Spalax galili, is an excellent model for studying mammalian adaptation to life underground and medical applications. The BMR spends its entire life underground, protecting itself from predators and climatic fluctuations while challenging it with multiple stressors such as darkness, hypoxia, hypercapnia, energetics and high pathonecity. Here we sequence and analyse the BMR genome and transcriptome, highlighting the possible genomic adaptive responses to the underground stressors. Our results show high rates of RNA/DNA editing, reduced chromosome rearrangements, an over-representation of short interspersed elements (SINEs) probably linked to hypoxia tolerance, degeneration of vision and progression of photoperiodic perception, tolerance to hypercapnia and hypoxia and resistance to cancer. The remarkable traits of the BMR, together with its genomic and transcriptomic information, enhance our understanding of adaptation to extreme environments and will enable the utilization of BMR models for biomedical research in the fight against cancer, stroke and cardiovascular diseases.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-06-03 | Nature Communications |