多组学联合探究紫貂寒冷适应性进化机制

适应性进化一直是进化生物学领域的研究热点。紫貂（Martes zibellina）是一种体型纤瘦、动作敏捷的亚寒带针叶林典型兽类，栖息于气候寒冷的北半球高纬度地区。与传统大型食肉类通过增加脂肪层厚度或冬眠等抗寒越冬方式不同，紫貂进化出了不同的适应策略来应对所处生境的严寒气候，如致密柔软的毛皮、高静息代谢率、高血糖值、低脂肪含量以及对季节性食物短缺的适应等。然而直至目前，关于小型食肉动物寒冷适应机制研究仍属空白。因此,本项目拟以紫貂这样一种生活在亚寒带针叶林的小型食肉类动物为研究模型，以寒冷适应为主线，从毛皮生长发育、能量代谢、物质代谢和温度感应等多个角度，结合全基因组、转录组、宏基因组和功能基因组等多组学分析手段探究紫貂适应寒冷气候的独特分子机制。

Adaptive evolution has been a hotspot in the field of evolutionary biology. Sable（Martes zibellina）is a typical slender and prompt animal, living in the northern high-latitudes subfrigid coniferous forest region with cold climate. Unlike traditional large carnivores which increase their fat layer thickness or hibernation, sable has evolved different adaptive strategies to cope with the harsh climate of habitat, such as dense soft fur, high resting metabolic rate, high blood glucose values, low fat content and seasonal food shortage adaptation. However, research on the cold adaptation mechanism of small carnivorous animals remains blank until now. Therefore, in order to explore the unique molecular mechanism of sable’s cold climate adaption, the project intends to use sable which is a small carnivorous animal living in the subfrigid coniferous forest as research model, cold adaptation as main line, using several aspects including growth and development of fur, energy metabolism, substance metabolism and temperature sense, combining with multigroup analysis methods such as whole genome, transcriptome, metagenome and functional genome.