Comparative transcriptomic and proteomic analyses provide insights into the key genes involved in high-altitude adaptation in the Tibetan pig

Bo Zhang; Yangzom Chamba; Peng Shang; Zhixiu Wang; Jun Ma; Liyuang Wang; Hao Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-03976-3

Comparative transcriptomic and proteomic analyses provide insights into the key genes involved in high-altitude adaptation in the Tibetan pig

Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 16;7(1):3654. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-03976-3.

Authors

Bo Zhang¹, Yangzom Chamba², Peng Shang^{1

2}, Zhixiu Wang¹, Jun Ma¹, Liyuang Wang¹, Hao Zhang³

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, China Agricultural University, No. 2 Yuanmingyuan West Rd., Beijing, 100193, China.
² Tibet Agriculture and Animal Husbandry College, Linzhi, Tibet, 860000, China.
³ National Engineering Laboratory for Animal Breeding, China Agricultural University, No. 2 Yuanmingyuan West Rd., Beijing, 100193, China. zhanghao827@163.com.

Abstract

Tibetan pigs that inhabit the Tibetan Plateau exhibit striking phenotypic and physiological differences from lowland pigs, and have adapted well to extreme conditions. However, the mechanisms involved in regulating gene expression at high altitude in these animals are not fully understood. In this study, we obtained transcriptomic and proteomic data from the heart tissues of Tibetan and Yorkshire pigs raised in the highlands (TH and YH) and lowlands (TL and YL) via RNA-seq and iTRAQ (isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation) analyses, respectively. Comparative analyses of TH vs. YH, TH vs.TL, TL vs. YL, and YH vs. YL yielded 299, 169, 242, and 368 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), and 473, 297, 394, and 297 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs), respectively. By functional annotation of these DEGs and DEPs, genes that were enriched in the HIF-1 signaling pathway (NPPA, ERK2, ENO3, and EGLN3), VEGF signaling pathway (ERK2, A2M, FGF1, CTGF, and DPP4), and hypoxia-related processes (CRYAB, EGLN3, TGFB2, DPP4, and ACE) were identified as important candidate genes for high-altitude adaptation in the Tibetan pig. This study enhances our understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in hypoxic adaptation in pigs, and furthers our understanding of human hypoxic diseases.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adaptation, Biological* / genetics
Altitude*
Animals
Computational Biology / methods
Gene Expression Profiling* / methods
Gene Ontology
High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
Molecular Sequence Annotation
Proteome*
Proteomics* / methods
Swine
Transcriptome*

Substances

Proteome