Transcriptome analysis provides new insights into cold adaptation of corsac fox (Vulpes Corsac)

Abstract

Vulpesare widely distributed throughout the world and have undergone drastic physiological and phenotypic changes in response to their environment. However, little is known about the underlying genetic causes of these traits, especially Vulpes corsac. In this study, RNA‐Seq was used to obtain a comprehensive dataset for multiple pooled tissues of corsac fox, and selection analysis of orthologous genes was performed to identify the genes that may be influenced by the low‐temperature environment. More than 6.32 Gb clean reads were obtained and assembled into a total of 173,353 unigenes with an average length of 557 bp for corsac fox. Selective pressure analysis showed that 16 positively selected genes (PSGs) were identified in corsac fox, red fox, and arctic fox. Enrichment analysis of PSGs showed that the LRP11 gene was enriched in several pathways related to the low‐temperature response and might play a key role in response to environmental stimuli of foxes. In addition, several positively selected genes were related to DNA damage repair (ELP2 and CHAF1A), innate immunity (ARRDC4 and S100A12), and the respiratory chain (NDUFA5), and these positively selected genes might play a role in adaptation to harsh wild fox environments. The results of common orthologous gene analysis showed that gene flow or convergent evolution might be an important factor in promoting regional differentiation of foxes. Our study provides a valuable transcriptomic resource for the evolutionary history of the corsac fox and the adaptations to the extreme environments.

High-Quality Chromosome-Level Genome Assembly of the Corsac Fox (Vulpes corsac) Reveals Adaptation to Semiarid and Harsh Environments

“…The Corsac fox is not listed in the CITES Appendices due to its large population size, although its survival is threatened by human activities, and its habitat is subject to degradation, which has attracted increasing attention from researchers [10]. The publication of transcriptome, mitochondrial genome, and metagenomic data on the Corsac fox has provided favorable support for niche adaptation and the evolutionary status of the species, although these investigations still lack the support of complete and high-quality genomic data [8,[11][12][13].…”