Project description:The screening of 741,000 variants in 420 individuals from Arabian Peninsula (100 from Saudi Arabia, 100 from Yemen, 100 from Oman and 120 from UAE) and 80 individuals from Iran.
Project description:Following the dispersal out of Africa, where hominins evolved in warm environments for millions of years, our species has colonised different climate zones of the world, including high latitudes and cold environments. The extent to which human habitation in (sub-)Arctic regions has been enabled by cultural buffering, short-term acclimatization and genetic adaptations is not clearly understood. Present day indigenous populations of Siberia show a number of phenotypic features, such as increased basal metabolic rate, low serum lipid levels, increased blood pressure, short stature and broad skulls that have been attributed to adaptation to the extreme cold climate. We have genotyped 200 individuals from ten indigenous Siberian populations for 730,525 SNPs across the genome to identify genes and non-coding regions that have undergone unusually rapid allele frequency and long-range haplotype homozygosity change in the recent past. At least three distinct population clusters could be identified among the Siberians, each of which showed a number of unique signals of selection. We present a list of cold adaption candidate genes that showed significant signals of positive selection with our strongest signals associated with genes involved in energy regulation and metabolism (CPT1A, LRP5, THADA) and vascular smooth muscle contraction (PRKG1). By employing a new method that paints phased chromosome chunks by their ancestry we distinguish local Siberian-specific long-range haplotype signals from those introduced by admixture. 200 blood samples from 200 Siberian individuals that come from ten different indigenous populations were genotypes for 730,525 SNPs across the genome. Eighteen Vietnamese samples were also genotyped and used as reference samples.
Project description:Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of warming and drought periods around the globe, currently representing a threat to many plant species. Understanding the resistance and resilience of plants to climate change is, therefore, urgently needed. As date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) evolved adaptation mechanisms to a xeric environment and is able to tolerate large diurnal and seasonal temperature fluctuations, we studied the protein expression changes in their leaves, volatile organic compound emissions, and photosynthesis in response to variable growth temperatures and soil water deprivation. Plants were grown under controlled environmental conditions under simulated Saudi Arabian summer and winter climates followed by drought stress. We show that date palm is able to counteract the harsh conditions of the Arabian Peninsula by adjusting the abundances of proteins related to the photosynthetic machinery, abiotic stress and secondary metabolism. Under summer climate and water deprivation, these adjustments included efficient protein expression response mediated by heat shock proteins and the antioxidant system to counteract reactive oxygen species formation. Proteins related to secondary metabolism were downregulated, except for the P. dactylifera isoprene synthase (PdIspS), which was strongly upregulated in response to summer climate and drought. This study reports for the first time, the identification and functional characterization of the gene encoding for PdIspS, allowing future analysis of isoprene functions in date palm under extreme environments. Overall, the current results show that protein reprogramming of date palm leaves contribute to heat and drought tolerance. We conclude that the protein plasticity of date palm is one important mechanism of molecular adaptation to remarkable environmental fluctuations.
Project description:Purpose: RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to identify the changes in gene expression profile to describe the metabolism adaptation at the whole transcriptome of blood to endurance effort. Samples from ten Arabian horses were taken before and after a 120km long endurance ride.
Project description:Adaptation to hypoxia is a complicated and important physiological course for organisms, but the genetic mechanism underlying the adaptation is not fully understood yet. Tibetan Chicken (T), an indigenous chicken breed in China which inhabit in high areas with an altitude above 2,900 meters. Shouguang Chicken(S) and Dwarf Recessive White Chicken (DRW), two lowland chicken breeds, were used as control groups. The heart was the first functional organ to develop during the embryonic development. Furthermore, the heart is an efficient energy converter utilizing the most appropriate fuel for a given environment. Therefore, GeneChip® Chicken Genome Array was employed to identify the differentially expressed genes in embryonic hearts of Tibetan Chicken and two lowland chicken breeds in both hypoxic and normoxic incubating environments with a genome wide profile. Keywords: stress response
Project description:Following the dispersal out of Africa, where hominins evolved in warm environments for millions of years, our species has colonised different climate zones of the world, including high latitudes and cold environments. The extent to which human habitation in (sub-)Arctic regions has been enabled by cultural buffering, short-term acclimatization and genetic adaptations is not clearly understood. Present day indigenous populations of Siberia show a number of phenotypic features, such as increased basal metabolic rate, low serum lipid levels, increased blood pressure, short stature and broad skulls that have been attributed to adaptation to the extreme cold climate. We have genotyped 200 individuals from ten indigenous Siberian populations for 730,525 SNPs across the genome to identify genes and non-coding regions that have undergone unusually rapid allele frequency and long-range haplotype homozygosity change in the recent past. At least three distinct population clusters could be identified among the Siberians, each of which showed a number of unique signals of selection. We present a list of cold adaption candidate genes that showed significant signals of positive selection with our strongest signals associated with genes involved in energy regulation and metabolism (CPT1A, LRP5, THADA) and vascular smooth muscle contraction (PRKG1). By employing a new method that paints phased chromosome chunks by their ancestry we distinguish local Siberian-specific long-range haplotype signals from those introduced by admixture.
Project description:Adaptation to hypoxia is a complicated and important physiological course for organisms, but the genetic mechanism underlying the adaptation is not fully understood yet. Tibetan Chicken (T), an indigenous chicken breed in China which inhabit in high areas with an altitude above 2,900 meters. Shouguang Chicken(S) and Dwarf Recessive White Chicken (DRW), two lowland chicken breeds, were used as control groups. The heart was the first functional organ to develop during the embryonic development. Furthermore, the heart is an efficient energy converter utilizing the most appropriate fuel for a given environment. Therefore, GeneChip® Chicken Genome Array was employed to identify the differentially expressed genes in embryonic hearts of Tibetan Chicken and two lowland chicken breeds in both hypoxic and normoxic incubating environments with a genome wide profile. Experiment Overall Design: To obtain general expression profiles of embryonic hearts in Tibetan Chicken(T), Dwarf Recessive White Chicken (DRW)and Shouguang Chicken (S)in hypoxia and normoxia, the fertilized full sib eggs of all the three chicken breeds were incubated under two different conditions. The heart was isolated from all the three chicken breeds under the two different conditions for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.