Project description:We performed transcriptomic profiling for two models of adipose browning, the classical mouse model and our newly described great roundleaf bat (H. armiger) model. Transcriptomes were generated from subcutaneous adipose tissue (sWAT), intra-abdominal adipose tissue (aWAT) and interscapular BAT (iBAT) from male and female bats, as well as sWAT and iBAT from male and female mice, which were acclimatized to 10°C and 30°C. These 20 trascriptomes allowed us to identity genes, GO terms, and pathways that show significant expression changes and are shared by both species during the browning process.
Project description:Heavy metals residue in the natural ecosystem had become one global environmental problem that was eager to solve. Due to the non-biodegradability, organism could deposit excessive heavy metals elements into tissues. Existing literature proposed that prolonged heavy metals enrichment had comprehensive toxicity to multi-organs of vertebrates. However, little research focus on the molecular mechanism for the hepatotoxicity of heavy metal enrichment to Chiroptera. In the present study, ten Hipposideros armiger individuals from Yingde City (YD, relatively pollution-free) and Chunwan City (CW, excessive heavy metals emission) were dissected while environment samples were also obtained. To corroborate the toxicity mechanism of heavy metals to bats liver, multi-omics, pathology and molecular biology methods were performed. Our results showed that more Cd and Pb elements were significantly enriched in bats liver and food sources in the CW group. In addition, prolonged heavy metals accumulation disturbed the hepatic transcription profiling associated with solute carriers family, ribosome pathway, ATP usage and heat shock proteins. Excessive heavy metals enrichment also altered the relative abundance of typical gut microbe taxa to inhibit the tight-junction protein expression. We also found that the levels of superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione were decreased while ROS density and malondialdehyde content were elevated after excessive heavy metals enrichment. Besides, hepatic fat accumulation and inflammation injury were also observed under the excessive heavy metals enrichment while the metabolism biomarkers contents were decreased. Therefore, prolonged heavy metals enrichment would induce a series of hepatotoxicity by disturbing the microbes-gut-liver axis and hepatic transcription modes, which could decrease the overall metabolism level in bats. Our study provided protection strategy for biodiversity conservation and raised public attention to environment pollution.