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Arctic introgression and chromatin regulation facilitated rapid Qinghai-Tibet Plateau colonization by an avian predator

2022; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 13; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/s41467-022-34138-3

2041-1723

Hu Li, Juan Long, Yi Lin, Zhongru Gu, Han Su, Xuemin Dong, Zhenzhen Lin, Qian Xiao, Nyambayar Batbayar, Batbayar Bold, Lucia Deutschová, Sergey Ganusevich, Vasiliy Sokolov, Aleksandr Sokolov, Hardip R. Patel, Paul D. Waters, Jennifer A. Marshall Graves, Andrew Dixon, Shengkai Pan, Xiangjiang Zhan,

Genetic diversity and population structure

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), possesses a climate as cold as that of the Arctic, and also presents uniquely low oxygen concentrations and intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation. QTP animals have adapted to these extreme conditions, but whether they obtained genetic variations from the Arctic during cold adaptation, and how genomic mutations in non-coding regions regulate gene expression under hypoxia and intense UV environment, remain largely unknown. Here, we assemble a high-quality saker falcon genome and resequence populations across Eurasia. We identify female-biased hybridization with Arctic gyrfalcons in the last glacial maximum, that endowed eastern sakers with alleles conveying larger body size and changes in fat metabolism, predisposing their QTP cold adaptation. We discover that QTP hypoxia and UV adaptations mainly involve independent changes in non-coding genomic variants. Our study highlights key roles of gene flow from Arctic relatives during QTP hypothermia adaptation, and cis-regulatory elements during hypoxic response and UV protection.