Background: Subterranean rodents have evolved many features to adapt to their hypoxic environment. The brain is an organ that is particularly vulnerable to damage caused by exposure to hypoxic conditions. To investigate the mechanisms of adaption to a hypoxic underground environment, we carried out a cross-species brain transcriptome analysis by RNA sequencing and identified genes that are differentially expressed between the subterranean vole Lasiopodomys mandarinus and the closely related above-ground species Lasiopodomys brandtii under chronic hypoxia [10.0% oxygen (O2)] and normoxia (20.9% O2).
Results: A total of 355 million clean reads were obtained, including 69,611 unigenes in L. mandarinus and 69,360 in L. brandtii. A total of 235 and 92 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by comparing the hypoxic and control groups of L. mandarinus and L. brandtii, respectively. A Gene Ontology (GO) analysis showed that upregulated DEGs in both species had similar functions in response to hypoxia, whereas downregulated DEGs in L. mandarinus were enriched GO terms related to enzymes involved in aerobic reactions. In the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis, upregulated DEGs in L. mandarinus were associated with angiogenesis and the increased O2 transport capacity of red blood cells, whereas downregulated DEGs were associated with immune responses. On the other hand, upregulated DEGs in L. brandtii were associated with cell survival, vascular endothelial cell proliferation, and neuroprotection, while downregulated genes were related to the synaptic transmission by neurons.
Conclusions: L. mandarinus actively adapts its physiological functions to hypoxic conditions, for instance by increasing O2 transport capacity and modulating O2 consumption. In contrast, L. brandtii reacts passively to hypoxia by decreasing overall activity in order to reduce O2 consumption. These results provide insight into hypoxia adaptation mechanisms in subterranean rodents that may be applicable to humans living at high altitudes or operating in other O2-poor environments.
Keywords: Brain; Chronic hypoxia; Lasiopodomys brandtii; Lasiopodomys mandarinus; Transcriptome analysis.