scholarly journals Metabolic responses of plasma to extreme environments in overwintering Tibetan frogs Nanorana parkeri: a metabolome integrated analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonggang Niu ◽  
Xuejing Zhang ◽  
Haiying Zhang ◽  
Tisen Xu ◽  
Lifeng Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Altitude ◽  
Extreme Environments ◽  
Winter Survival ◽  
Plasma Metabolites ◽  
Integrated Analysis ◽  
Metabolic Inhibitor ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Isoleucine Leucine ◽  
Adaptive Mechanisms ◽  
Hostile Environments

AbstractMany animals lower their metabolic rate in response to low temperatures and scarcity of food in the winter in phenomena called hibernation or overwintering. Living at high altitude on the Tibetan Plateau where winters are very cold, the frog Nanorana parkeri, survives in one of the most hostile environments on Earth but, to date, relatively little is known about the biochemical and physiological adjustments for overwintering by this species. The present study profiled changes in plasma metabolites of N. parkeri between winter and summer using UHPLC-QE-MS non-target metabolomics in order to explore metabolic adaptations that support winter survival. The analysis showed that, in total, 11 metabolites accumulated and 95 were reduced in overwintering frogs compared with summer-active animals. Metabolites that increased included some that may have antioxidant functions (canthaxanthin, galactinol), act as a metabolic inhibitor (mono-ethylhexylphthalate), or accumulate as a product of anaerobic metabolism (lactate). Most other metabolites in plasma showed reduced levels in winter and were generally involved in energy metabolism including 11 amino acids (proline, isoleucine, leucine, valine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, arginine, tryptophan, methionine, threonine and histidine) and 4 carbohydrates (glucose, citrate, succinate, and malate). Pathway analysis indicated that aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis, and nitrogen metabolism were potentially the most prominently altered pathways in overwintering frogs. Changes to these pathways are likely due to fasting and global metabolic depression in overwintering frogs. Concentrations of glucose and urea, commonly used as cryoprotectants by amphibians that winter on land, were significantly reduced during underwater hibernation in N. parkeri. In conclusion, winter survival of the high-altitude frog, N. parkeri was accompanied by substantial changes in metabolomic profiles and this study provides valuable information towards understanding the special adaptive mechanisms of N. parkeri to winter stresses.

scholarly journals Condensing Life Substances within the House: The Rice-Boiling Shuhi of Southwest China

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Hsu ◽  
Franz K. Huber ◽  
Caroline S. Weckerle
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Southwest China ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Regional Culture ◽  
Fault Line

AbstractThe Shuhi of Muli County, Sichuan Province, are one of multiple ethnic groups inhabiting the river gorges of the Qinghai-Gansu-Sichuan corridor between the Tibetan plateau and the Chinese lowlands. The Shuhi have grown paddy rice since times immemorial at an unusually high altitude (ca. 2,300 m above sea level). This article aims to explain this conundrum not merely through the ecology (as is common among Tibetan area specialists), but by researching the cultivation and consumption of rice as a historically-evolved cultural practice. According to a recently formulated agro-archaeological hypothesis regarding the macro-region of Eurasia, it is possible to identify two supra-regional culture complexes distinguished by their respective culinary technologies: rice-boiling versus wheat-grinding-and-baking. The hypothesis posits that the fault line between the two supra-regional cultural complexes is precisely along this river gorges corridor. In this article we provide support for this hypothesis arguing that Shuhi ritual and kinship practices have much affinity with those of other rice-boiling peoples in Southeast Asia, whereas certain of their current religious practices are shared with the wheat-grinding Tibetans.

scholarly journals A comparative analysis of differentially expressed mRNAs, miRNAs and circRNAs provides insights into the key genes involved in the high-altitude adaptation of yaks

BMC Genomics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qianyun Ge ◽  
Yongbo Guo ◽  
Wangshan Zheng ◽  
Yuan Cai ◽  
Xuebin Qi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Altitude ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Regulation Of Gene Expression ◽  
Differentially Expressed ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
The Core ◽  
Processing Pathways ◽  
Genetic Information Processing ◽  
Altitude Adaptation ◽  
The Difference

Abstract Background Yaks that inhabit the Tibetan Plateau exhibit striking phenotypic and physiological differences from cattle and have adapted well to the extreme conditions on the plateau. However, the mechanisms used by these animals for the regulation of gene expression at high altitude are not fully understood. Results Here, we sequenced nine lung transcriptomes of yaks at altitudes of 3400, 4200 and 5000 m, and low-altitude Zaosheng cattle, which is a closely related species, served as controls. The analysis identified 21,764 mRNAs, 1377 circRNAs and 1209 miRNAs. By comparing yaks and cattle, 4975 mRNAs, 252 circRNAs and 75 miRNAs were identified differentially expressed. By comparing yaks at different altitudes, we identified 756 mRNAs, 64 circRNAs and 83 miRNAs that were differentially expressed (fold change ≥2 and P-value < 0.05). The pathways enriched in the mRNAs, circRNAs and miRNAs identified from the comparison of yaks and cattle were mainly associated with metabolism, including ‘glycosaminoglycan degradation’, ‘pentose and glucuronate interconversions’ and ‘flavone and flavonol biosynthesis’, and the mRNAs, circRNAs and miRNAs identified from the comparison of yaks at different altitude gradients were significantly enriched in metabolic pathways and immune and genetic information processing pathways. The core RNAs were identified from the mRNA-miRNA-circRNA networks constructed using the predominant differentially expressed RNAs. The core genes specific to the difference between yaks and cattle were associated with the endoplasmic reticulum and fat deposition, but those identified from the comparison among yaks at different altitude gradients were associated with maintenance of the normal biological functions of cells. Conclusions This study enhances our understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in hypoxic adaptation in yaks and might contribute to improvements in the understanding and prevention of hypoxia-related diseases.

scholarly journals Altitude-wise analysis of co-occurrence networks of mitochondrial genome in Asian population

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahul K Verma ◽  
Cristina Giuliani ◽  
Alena Kalyakuina ◽  
Ajay Deep Kachhvah ◽  
Mikhail Ivanchenko ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mitochondrial Genome ◽  
High Altitude ◽  
Dna Sequences ◽  
Group Analysis ◽  
Asian Population ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Mt Dna ◽  
High Altitude Adaptation ◽  
Altitude Adaptation ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTFinding mechanisms behind high altitude adaptation in humans at the Tibetan plateau has been a subject of evolutionary research. Mitochondrial DNA (mt-DNA) variations have been established as one of the key players in understanding the biological mechanisms at the basis of adaptation to these extreme conditions. To explore cumulative effects and dynamics of the variations in mitochondrial genome at varying altitudes, we investigated human mt-DNA sequences from NCBI database at different altitudes by employing co-occurrence motifs framework. We constructed co-occurrence motifs by taking into account variable sites for each altitude group. Analysis of the co-occurrence motifs using similarity clustering revealed a clear distinction between a lower and a higher altitude region. In addition, the previously known high altitude markers 3394 and 7697 (which are definitive sites of haplogroup M9a1a1c1b) were found to co-occur within their own gene complexes indicating the impact of intra-genic constraint on co-evolution of nucleotides. Furthermore, an ancestral marker 10398 was found to co-occur only at higher altitudes supporting the fact that a separate root of colonization at these altitudes might have taken place. Overall, our analysis revealed the presence of co-occurrence motifs at a whole mitochondrial genome level. This study, combined with the classical haplogroups analysis is useful in understanding role of co-occurrence of mitochondrial variations in high altitude adaptation.

Passcal instrument performance during the Tibetan Plateau Passive Seismic Experiment

1993 ◽  
Vol 83 (6) ◽  
pp. 1959-1970
Author(s):  
Thomas J. Owens ◽  
George E. Randall ◽  
Francis T. Wu ◽  
Rongsheng Zeng
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Extreme Environments ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Spatial Density ◽  
Frequency Noise ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Seismic Experiment ◽  
Deep Earth Structure ◽  
Passive Seismic

Summary The PASSCAL instrumentation performed very well in the Tibetan Plateau Seismic Experiment. This experiment has demonstrated the viability of recording high-quality broadband data at temporary sites in extreme environments. It also highlights some areas where further development is needed. Primarily, more effort is needed to develop more versatile triggering options for the PASSCAL instruments. Such developments could both increase the instrument's success at recording low magnitude teleseismic events for travel-time studies and save disk space when recording local events, thus further increasing the feasibility of long deployments in remote regions. Although the use of the PASSCAL instrument's calibration circuitry for sensor recentering is a valuable technique, more experience is needed in the construction of sensor pads to minimize tilt problems that require site visits to relevel the seismometer such as we experienced at a few sites in the winter. This may also lead to improved low-frequency noise levels, although signals with periods greater than 200 sec can be recovered from these sites. The most exciting aspect of the data we have collected is its broad frequency content and spatial density. We anticipate that this type of experiment will be increasingly useful in the study of lithospheric interactions as well as deep Earth structure. This data was delivered to the IRIS Data Management Center in early September 1993 and is available to the community. Two other broadband passive-seismic experiments, the Baikal Rift experiment (Gao et al. 1992) and the Rocky Mountain Front experiment (Sheehan et al. 1992) should be delivered to the IRIS DMC in the Fall of 1993 as well. Temporary broadband seismic experiments represent an extension of the permanent Global Seismic Network (GSN). We encourage the seismological community to incorporate these data into any research using GSN data in order to maximize the potential utility of this new mode of seismic recording.

scholarly journals De novo assembly of a Tibetan genome and identification of novel structural variants associated with high-altitude adaptation

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 391-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaoxi He ◽  
Haiyi Lou ◽  
Chaoying Cui ◽  
Lian Deng ◽  
Yang Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Altitude ◽  
De Novo Assembly ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Population Analysis ◽  
Extreme Environments ◽  
Structural Variants ◽  
Base Pairs ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Long Read ◽  
Altitude Adaptation

Abstract Structural variants (SVs) may play important roles in human adaptation to extreme environments such as high altitude but have been under-investigated. Here, combining long-read sequencing with multiple scaffolding techniques, we assembled a high-quality Tibetan genome (ZF1), with a contig N50 length of 24.57 mega-base pairs (Mb) and a scaffold N50 length of 58.80 Mb. The ZF1 assembly filled 80 remaining N-gaps (0.25 Mb in total length) in the reference human genome (GRCh38). Markedly, we detected 17 900 SVs, among which the ZF1-specific SVs are enriched in GTPase activity that is required for activation of the hypoxic pathway. Further population analysis uncovered a 163-bp intronic deletion in the MKL1 gene showing large divergence between highland Tibetans and lowland Han Chinese. This deletion is significantly associated with lower systolic pulmonary arterial pressure, one of the key adaptive physiological traits in Tibetans. Moreover, with the use of the high-quality de novo assembly, we observed a much higher rate of genome-wide archaic hominid (Altai Neanderthal and Denisovan) shared non-reference sequences in ZF1 (1.32%–1.53%) compared to other East Asian genomes (0.70%–0.98%), reflecting a unique genomic composition of Tibetans. One such archaic hominid shared sequence—a 662-bp intronic insertion in the SCUBE2 gene—is enriched and associated with better lung function (the FEV1/FVC ratio) in Tibetans. Collectively, we generated the first high-resolution Tibetan reference genome, and the identified SVs may serve as valuable resources for future evolutionary and medical studies.

The Extreme Environment of High Altitude Gas Ballooning

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 1409-1413
Author(s):  
Nathan J. McNeese ◽  
Nancy J. Cooke ◽  
Steven Shope ◽  
Ashley Knobloch
Keyword(s):  
High Altitude ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Research Team ◽  
Multiple Stressors ◽  
Extreme Environments ◽  
Extreme Environment ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Specific Work ◽  
Team Cognition ◽  
World Records

Extreme environments often profoundly impact one’s cognition and subsequently the ability to make accurate and correct decisions. Although we are beginning to understand how these environments impact individual and team cognition, more specific work conducted in real extreme environments is needed to further understand this relationship. In this paper, we present data collected in the extreme environment of gas ballooning. Recently, the Two Eagles gas ballooning project set two absolute world records: longest duration in a gas balloon and longest distance in a gas balloon. During this project, our research team was able to collect cognitive abilities data and data on the effects of multiple stressors in the environment. We present the overall project along with some insights from the data. We also highlight lessons learned from attempting to collect data in an extreme environment.

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