Life Underground: the Biology of Subterranean Rodents

Gómez, P Luis Diego

doi:10.1046/j.1439-0310.2001.00684.x

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(9 reference statements)

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“…Rodents living in underground burrows face a formidable physiological challenge because these creatures must be forced to experience darkness, hypoxia, and hypercapnia ( 1 – 4 ). However, subterranean rodents are able to survive under this harsh environmental pressure in large part, because they have evolved various strategies, for instance, rewiring glycolysis and increasing fatty acid oxidation, to cope with the great challenge of high energy consumption in digging unpredictable food resources and maintaining the structure of the burrows ( 5 – 11 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gut Microbiome Alterations and Hepatic Metabolic Flexibility in the Gansu Zokor, Eospalax cansus: Adaptation to Hypoxic Niches

Lin

Yang

Guo

et al. 2022

Front. Cardiovasc. Med.

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The Gansu zokor (Eospalax cansus), a typical subterranean rodent endemic to the Chinese Loess Plateau, spends almost its whole life in its self-constructed underground burrows and has strong adaptability to ambient hypoxia. Energy adaptation is the key to supporting hypoxia tolerance, and recent studies have shown that the intestinal microbiota has an evident effect on energy metabolism. However, how the gut microbiome of Gansu zokor will change in response to hypoxia and the metabolic role played by the microbiome have not been reported. Thus, we exposed Gansu zokors to severe hypoxia of 6.5% of O2 (6 or 44 h) or moderate hypoxia of 10.5% of O2 (44 h or 4 weeks), and then analyzed 16S rRNA sequencing, metagenomic sequencing, metagenomic binning, liver carbohydrate metabolites, and the related molecular levels. Our results showed that the hypoxia altered the microbiota composition of Gansu zokor, and the relative contribution of Ileibacterium to carbohydrate metabolism became increased under hypoxia, such as glycolysis and fructose metabolism. Furthermore, Gansu zokor liver enhanced carbohydrate metabolism under the short-term (6 or 44 h) hypoxia but it was suppressed under the long-term (4 weeks) hypoxia. Interestingly, under all hypoxia conditions, Gansu zokor liver exhibited enhanced fructose-driven metabolism through increased expression of the GLUT5 fructose transporter, ketohexokinase (KHK), aldolase B (ALDOB), and aldolase C (ALDOC), as well as increased KHK enzymatic activity and fructose utilization. Overall, our results suggest that the altered gut microbiota mediates the carbohydrate metabolic pattern under hypoxia, possibly contributing to the hepatic metabolic flexibility in Gansu zokor, which leads to better adaptation to hypoxic environments.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gut Microbiome Alterations and Hepatic Metabolic Flexibility in the Gansu Zokor, Eospalax cansus: Adaptation to Hypoxic Niches

Lin

Yang

Guo

et al. 2022

Front. Cardiovasc. Med.

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“…The family Spalacidae includes a group of naturally subterranean rodents known as zokors. Zokors (Eospalax) spend 85-90% of their time in self-constructed underground burrows, rarely venturing out on the ground surface; on the one hand, the burrows offer shelter from extreme climatic conditions and predators, while on the other hand, zokors must withstand the stress of a hypoxic and hypercapnic environment in almost total darkness burrows (Zhou and Dou, 1990;Zhang et al, 2003;Lacey et al, 2010;Xu et al, 2019). Furthermore, these animals require large amounts of energy digging to locate unpredictably and unevenly scattered food resources (Begall et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The mTORC1/eIF4E/HIF-1α Pathway Mediates Glycolysis to Support Brain Hypoxia Resistance in the Gansu Zokor, Eospalax cansus

et al. 2021

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The Gansu zokor (Eospalax cansus) is a subterranean rodent species that is unique to China. These creatures inhabit underground burrows with a hypoxia environment. Metabolic energy patterns in subterranean rodents have become a recent focus of research; however, little is known about brain energy metabolism under conditions of hypoxia in this species. The mammalian (mechanistic) target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) coordinates eukaryotic cell growth and metabolism, and its downstream targets regulate hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) under conditions of hypoxia to induce glycolysis. In this study, we compared the metabolic characteristics of hypoxia-tolerant subterranean Gansu zokors under hypoxic conditions with those of hypoxia-intolerant Sprague-Dawley rats with a similar-sized surface area. We exposed Gansu zokors and rats to hypoxia I (44 h at 10.5% O2) or hypoxia II (6 h at 6.5% O2) and then measured the transcriptional levels of mTORC1 downstream targets, the transcriptional and translational levels of glycolysis-related genes, glucose and fructose levels in plasma and brain, and the activity of key glycolysis-associated enzymes. Under hypoxia, we found that hif-1α transcription was upregulated via the mTORC1/eIF4E pathway to drive glycolysis. Furthermore, Gansu zokor brain exhibited enhanced fructose-driven glycolysis under hypoxia through increased expression of the GLUT5 fructose transporter and ketohexokinase (KHK), in addition to increased KHK enzymatic activity, and utilization of fructose; these changes did not occur in rat. However, glucose-driven glycolysis was enhanced in both Gansu zokor and rat under hypoxia II of 6.5% O2 for 6 h. Overall, our results indicate that on the basis of glucose as the main metabolic substrate, fructose is used to accelerate the supply of energy in Gansu zokor, which mirrors the metabolic responses to hypoxia in this species.

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Life Underground: the Biology of Subterranean Rodents

Cited by 2 publications

References 11 publications

Gut Microbiome Alterations and Hepatic Metabolic Flexibility in the Gansu Zokor, Eospalax cansus: Adaptation to Hypoxic Niches

Gut Microbiome Alterations and Hepatic Metabolic Flexibility in the Gansu Zokor, Eospalax cansus: Adaptation to Hypoxic Niches

The mTORC1/eIF4E/HIF-1α Pathway Mediates Glycolysis to Support Brain Hypoxia Resistance in the Gansu Zokor, Eospalax cansus

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