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Endothelial PAS domain protein 1 gene (EPAS1) is a key transcription factor that activates the expression of oxygen-regulated genes. In this study, in order to better understand the effects of EPAS1 gene on hematologic parameters in yak, we firstly quantified the tissue expression patterns for EPAS1 mRNA of yak, identified polymorphism in this gene and evaluated its association with hematologic parameters. Expression of EPAS1 mRNA was detected in all eight tissues (heart, liver, lung, spleen, pancreas, kidney, muscles and ovary). The expressions of EPAS1 in lung and pancreas were extremely higher than other tissues examined. Three novel single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (g.83052 C>T, g.83065 G>A and g.83067 C>A) within the EPAS1 were identified and genotyped in Pali (PL), Gannan (GN) and Tianzhu White (TZW) yak breeds. Significant higher frequencies of the AA and GA genotypes and A allele of the g.83065 G>A were observed in the PL and GN breeds than that in the TZW breed (PA polymorphism was significantly associated with hemoglobin (HGB) concentration in yaks (P

Tibetan chickens (Gallus gallus; TBCs) are a good model for studying hypoxia-related challenges. However, lipid composition in TBC embryonic brains has not been elucidated. In this study, we characterized brain lipid profiles of embryonic day 18 TBCs and dwarf laying chickens (DLCs) during hypoxia (13% O 2 , HTBC18, and HDLC18) and normoxia (21% O 2 , NTBC18, and NDLC18) by using lipidomics. A total of 50 lipid classes, including 3540 lipid molecular species, were identified and grouped into glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, glycerolipids, sterols, prenols, and fatty acyls. Of these lipids, 67 and 97 were expressed at different levels in the NTBC18 and NDLC18, and HTBC18 and HDLC18 samples, respectively. Several lipid species, including phosphatidylethanolamines (PEs), hexosylceramides, phosphatidylcholines (PCs), and phospha-tidylserines (PSs), were highly expressed in HTBC18. These results suggest that TBCs adapt bet-ter to hypoxia than DLCs and may have distinct cell membrane composition and nervous system development, at least partly owing to differential expression of several lipid species. One tri-glyceride, one PC, one PS, and three PE lipids were identified as potential markers that discrim-inated between lipid profiles of the HTBC18 and HDLC18 samples. The present study provides valuable information about the dynamic composition of lipids in TBCs that may explain the adaptation of this species to hypoxia., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

The plateau pika, a typical hypoxia-tolerant mammal lives 3000-5000 m above sea level on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, has acquired many physiological and morphological characteristics and strategies in its adaptation to sustained, high-altitude hypoxia. Blunted hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction is one such strategy, but the genes involved in this strategy have not been elucidated. Here, we investigated the genes involved and their expression profiles in the lung transcriptome of plateau pikas subjected to different hypoxic conditions (using low-pressure oxygen cabins). A slight, right ventricular hypertrophy was observed in pikas of the control group (altitude: 3200 m) vs. those exposed to 5000 m altitude conditions for one week. Our assembly identified 67,774 genes; compared with their expression in the control animals, 866 and 8364 genes were co-upregulated and co-downregulated, respectively, in pikas subjected to 5000 m altitude conditions for 1 and 4 w. We elucidated pathways that were associated with pulmonary vascular arterial pressure, including vascular smooth muscle contraction, HIF-1 signalling, calcium signalling, cGMP-PKG signalling, and PI3K-Akt signalling based on the differentially expressed genes; the top-100 pathway enrichments were found between the control group and the group exposed to 5000 m altitude conditions for 4 w. The mRNA levels of 18 candidate gene showed that more than 83% of genes were expressed and the number of transcriptome The up-regulated genes were EPAS1, Hbα, iNOS, CX40, CD31, PPM1B, HIF-1α, MYLK, Pcdh12, Surfactant protein B, the down-regulated genes were RYR2, vWF, RASA1, CLASRP, HIF-3α. Our transcriptome data are a valuable resource for future genomic studies on plateau pika., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.)