Key Laboratory of Yunnan Province for Biomass Energy and Environment Biotechnology, Kunming 650500. China

The same species inhabiting different regions often develop different survival adaptation strategies to adapt to the local environment. In the present study, the genome of 66 Eothenomys miletus from Deqin (DQ, high altitude) and Ailao Mountains (ALS, low altitude) regions was simply sequenced by selective elimination method. The results showed that the obtained genes were enriched with GO and KEGG. Three genes were screened in DQ region, namely PLA2G4A, SOX30, GPX5. Through further analysis, it was found that these three genes were mainly related to the reproduction of male E. miletus, PLA2G4A was mainly related to the production of luteinizing hormone (LH), which can stimulate leydig cells to produce testosterone and other male hormones; Androgens were associated with the expression of GPX5, which was mainly aimed at avoiding oxidative damage to sperm and reducing the incidence of malformations in young offspring and miscarriage in female individuals. SOX30 is mainly involved in sexual reproduction and spermatogenesis. By measuring the expression content of three genes, the results showed that the content in DQ was significantly higher than that in ALS, which further confirmed that E. miletus in DQ increased their fecundity by increasing the expression products of these three genes. Moreover, the current study expanded the research on high-altitude adaptation strategies of small mammals, providing a theoretical basis for animals’ high-altitude migration.

Keywords: Eothenomys miletus; PLA2G4A; SOX30; GPX5; Reproduction; Adaptation strategy