PUBLICATION

Analysis of hypoxia-inducible factor alpha polyploidization reveals adaptation to Tibetan Plateau in the evolution of schizothoracine fish

Authors
Guan, L., Chi, W., Xiao, W., Chen, L., He, S.
ID
ZDB-PUB-141105-11
Date
2014
Source
BMC Evolutionary Biology   14: 192 (Journal)
Registered Authors
Xiao, Wuhan
Keywords
none
MeSH Terms
  • Adaptation, Physiological/genetics*
  • Animals
  • Cloning, Molecular
  • Cyprinidae/genetics*
  • Cyprinidae/physiology*
  • Evolution, Molecular*
  • Gene Duplication
  • HEK293 Cells
  • Humans
  • Hypoxia/genetics
  • Hypoxia/physiopathology
  • Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, alpha Subunit/genetics*
  • Mutation
  • Polyploidy*
  • Species Specificity
  • Tibet
  • Transcription, Genetic
  • Zebrafish/genetics
  • Zebrafish/physiology
PubMed
25205386 Full text @ BMC Evol. Biol.
Abstract
Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is a master regulator that mediates major changes in gene expression under hypoxic conditions. Though HIF family has been identified in many organisms, little is known about this family in schizothoracine fish.
Duplicated hif-α (hif-1αA, hif-1αB, hif-2αA, and hif-2αB) genes were identified in schizothoracine fish. All the deduced HIF-α proteins contain the main domains (bHLH-PAS, ODDD, and TAD), also found in humans. Evidence suggests a Cyprinidae-specific deletion, specifically, a conserved proline hydroxylation motif LxxLAP, in the NODD domain of schizothoracine fish HIF-1αA. In addition, a schizothoracine-specific mutation was observed in the CODD domain of the specialized and highly specialized schizothoracine fish HIF-1αB, which is the proline hydroxylation motif mutated into PxxLAP. Standard and stochastic branch-site codon model analysis indicated that only HIF-1αB has undergone positive selection, which may have led to changes in function. To confirm this hypothesis, HIF-αs tagged with Myc were transfected into HEK 293 T cells. Each HIF-1αB was found to significantly upregulate luciferase activity under normoxic and hypoxic conditions, which indicated that the HIF-1αB protein was more stable than other HIF-αs.
All deduced HIF-α proteins of schizothoracine fish contain important domains, like their mammalian counterparts, and each HIF-α is shorter than that of human. Our experiments reveal that teleost-specific duplicated hif-α genes played different roles under hypoxic conditions, and HIF-1αB may be the most important regulator in the adaptation of schizothoracine fish to the environment of the Tibetan Plateau.
Genes / Markers
Figures
Expression
Phenotype
Mutations / Transgenics
Human Disease / Model
Sequence Targeting Reagents
Fish
Antibodies
Orthology
Engineered Foreign Genes
Mapping