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Convergent Evolution of Himalayan Marmot with Some High-Altitude Animals through ND3 Protein

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) lives on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and may display plateau-adapted traits similar to other high-altitude species according to the principle of convergent evolution. We assessed 20 species (marmot group (n = 11), plateau group (n = 8), and Him...

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Autores principales: Bao, Ziqiang, Li, Cheng, Guo, Cheng, Xiang, Zuofu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7909448/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33498455
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11020251
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author Bao, Ziqiang
Li, Cheng
Guo, Cheng
Xiang, Zuofu
author_facet Bao, Ziqiang
Li, Cheng
Guo, Cheng
Xiang, Zuofu
author_sort Bao, Ziqiang
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: The Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) lives on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and may display plateau-adapted traits similar to other high-altitude species according to the principle of convergent evolution. We assessed 20 species (marmot group (n = 11), plateau group (n = 8), and Himalayan marmot), and analyzed their sequence of CYTB gene, CYTB protein, and ND3 protein. We found that the ND3 protein of Himalayan marmot plays an important role in adaptation to life on the plateau and would show a history of convergent evolution with other high-altitude animals at the molecular level. ABSTRACT: The Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) mainly lives on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and it adopts multiple strategies to adapt to high-altitude environments. According to the principle of convergent evolution as expressed in genes and traits, the Himalayan marmot might display similar changes to other local species at the molecular level. In this study, we obtained high-quality sequences of the CYTB gene, CYTB protein, ND3 gene, and ND3 protein of representative species (n = 20) from NCBI, and divided them into the marmot group (n = 11), the plateau group (n = 8), and the Himalayan marmot (n = 1). To explore whether plateau species have convergent evolution on the microscale level, we built a phylogenetic tree, calculated genetic distance, and analyzed the conservation and space structure of Himalayan marmot ND3 protein. The marmot group and Himalayan marmots were in the same branch of the phylogenetic tree for the CYTB gene and CYTB protein, and mean genetic distance was 0.106 and 0.055, respectively, which was significantly lower than the plateau group. However, the plateau group and the Himalayan marmot were in the same branch of the phylogenetic tree, and the genetic distance was only 10% of the marmot group for the ND3 protein, except Marmota flaviventris. In addition, some sites of the ND3 amino acid sequence of Himalayan marmots were conserved from the plateau group, but not the marmot group. This could lead to different structures and functional diversifications. These findings indicate that Himalayan marmots have adapted to the plateau environment partly through convergent evolution of the ND3 protein with other plateau animals, however, this protein is not the only strategy to adapt to high altitudes, as there may have other methods to adapt to this environment.
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spelling pubmed-79094482021-02-27 Convergent Evolution of Himalayan Marmot with Some High-Altitude Animals through ND3 Protein Bao, Ziqiang Li, Cheng Guo, Cheng Xiang, Zuofu Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: The Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) lives on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and may display plateau-adapted traits similar to other high-altitude species according to the principle of convergent evolution. We assessed 20 species (marmot group (n = 11), plateau group (n = 8), and Himalayan marmot), and analyzed their sequence of CYTB gene, CYTB protein, and ND3 protein. We found that the ND3 protein of Himalayan marmot plays an important role in adaptation to life on the plateau and would show a history of convergent evolution with other high-altitude animals at the molecular level. ABSTRACT: The Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) mainly lives on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and it adopts multiple strategies to adapt to high-altitude environments. According to the principle of convergent evolution as expressed in genes and traits, the Himalayan marmot might display similar changes to other local species at the molecular level. In this study, we obtained high-quality sequences of the CYTB gene, CYTB protein, ND3 gene, and ND3 protein of representative species (n = 20) from NCBI, and divided them into the marmot group (n = 11), the plateau group (n = 8), and the Himalayan marmot (n = 1). To explore whether plateau species have convergent evolution on the microscale level, we built a phylogenetic tree, calculated genetic distance, and analyzed the conservation and space structure of Himalayan marmot ND3 protein. The marmot group and Himalayan marmots were in the same branch of the phylogenetic tree for the CYTB gene and CYTB protein, and mean genetic distance was 0.106 and 0.055, respectively, which was significantly lower than the plateau group. However, the plateau group and the Himalayan marmot were in the same branch of the phylogenetic tree, and the genetic distance was only 10% of the marmot group for the ND3 protein, except Marmota flaviventris. In addition, some sites of the ND3 amino acid sequence of Himalayan marmots were conserved from the plateau group, but not the marmot group. This could lead to different structures and functional diversifications. These findings indicate that Himalayan marmots have adapted to the plateau environment partly through convergent evolution of the ND3 protein with other plateau animals, however, this protein is not the only strategy to adapt to high altitudes, as there may have other methods to adapt to this environment. MDPI 2021-01-20 /pmc/articles/PMC7909448/ /pubmed/33498455 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11020251 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bao, Ziqiang
Li, Cheng
Guo, Cheng
Xiang, Zuofu
Convergent Evolution of Himalayan Marmot with Some High-Altitude Animals through ND3 Protein
title Convergent Evolution of Himalayan Marmot with Some High-Altitude Animals through ND3 Protein
title_full Convergent Evolution of Himalayan Marmot with Some High-Altitude Animals through ND3 Protein
title_fullStr Convergent Evolution of Himalayan Marmot with Some High-Altitude Animals through ND3 Protein
title_full_unstemmed Convergent Evolution of Himalayan Marmot with Some High-Altitude Animals through ND3 Protein
title_short Convergent Evolution of Himalayan Marmot with Some High-Altitude Animals through ND3 Protein
title_sort convergent evolution of himalayan marmot with some high-altitude animals through nd3 protein
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7909448/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33498455
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11020251
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