ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2019, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (9): 1723-1736.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2019.09.001

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Advances in Research on Adaptive Evolution of Native Animals of Tibetan Plateau

ZHANG Jianbo1, DING Xuezhi1*, ANUM Ali Ahmad2, LI Chen1, LIANG Zeyi1, DU Mei1, YAN Ping1*   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Yak Breeding Engineering, Lanzhou Institute of Husbandry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou 730050, China;
    2. School of Life Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
  • Received:2019-04-04 Online:2019-09-23 Published:2019-09-23

Abstract: The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the highest, largest and the most complex geographical unit in the world. Its unique topography and physiognomy had formed extreme environment and climatic characteristics i.e., severe winter, low oxygen, strong ultraviolet radiation, etc. For millions of years, plateau indigenous animals have developed unique hypoxic adaptation strategies during the long-term process of evolution. After long-term natural selection, plateau indigenous animals not only have acquired stable hypoxic adaptability in physiology, behavior, biochemistry and morphology, but also developed a series of unique regulatory mechanisms at the cellular and molecular levels. In the past century, the research on the adaptive evolution of plateau animals mainly focused on their physiology. Recently, with the continuous genomic database update, the adaptive evolution of plateau animals at molecular level has become a hot spot, but these mechanisms are not yet comprehensively analyzed and the future studies will be needed. Therefore, future research can be combined with the reported relevant phenotypic and genotypic data to comprehensively and systematically analyze the molecular mechanisms and genetic principles of plateau animal adaptive evolution. It will provide theoretical and practical basis for breeding new animal breeds adpating cold, low hypoxia and strong ultraviolet radiation. It will also provide new ideas for clinical prevention and treatment of high-altitude diseases. Based on the unique climatic conditions i.e., hypoxia, low temperature and strong ultraviolet radiation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, combined with the research results of related microorganisms, this paper reviews the research progress on the adaptive evolution of plateau animals in recent decades.

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