马铁菊头蝠东北和中东谱系种群具有冬眠行为。冬眠是否受表观遗传调控，冬眠过程中表观遗传信息是否存在动态变化，这些表观遗传信息的表达在2个谱系的冬眠行为上是否有所差异及其相应的功能是什么，都是值得深入研究的科学问题。我们监测冬眠过程中，个体体温变化和种群的冬眠方式，以反映2个谱系间的冬眠表型差异。从非冬眠、冬眠期的入眠-深眠-觉醒4个阶段，分析与冬眠过程密切相关的大脑、肝脏和棕色脂肪3个组织的表观遗传信息变化，包括基因组DNA甲基化水平、表观沉默子表达水平、冬眠关键基因启动子CpG位点甲基化水平以及microRNA表达水平的变化，比较组织之间表观遗传信息的差异表达情况，发掘2个谱系之间冬眠的表观遗传变异的异同点及其潜在的功能。这些工作可为全面深入研究马铁菊头蝠冬眠机制提供新的方向，为其他冬眠动物的相关研究提供了一定的科学依据和借鉴。

The populations of Northeast and Middle East lineages of Rhinolophus ferrumequinum have hibernating behavior. We are interesting in a series of scientific questions, including whether hibernation is regulated by epigenetics, are there dynamic changes in epigenetic information during hibernation, do the expression of these epigenetic information differ in the hibernating behavior of the two lineages and what’s their corresponding functions. We will monitor the body temperature and hibernating patterns during hibernation to reflect the differences of hibernated phenotypic between the two lineages. We will collect bats in non-hibernation and hibernation stages (entrance into topor, deep topor, arousal), and investigate the changes of epigenetic information and its potential function in brain, liver, and brown adipose tissues, respectively. The work contains the changes of the levels of genomic DNA methylation, the expression levels of epigenetic silencers, the methylation levels of CpG site in promoter of key hibernating genes, and the expression levels of microRNA. We also will explore the similarities and differences of epigenetic variations of hibernation between the two lineages and its possible functions. Our work would provide a new direction for the comprehensive, in-depth study of hibernation mechanism of R. ferrumequinum, and may support a certain scientific basis and reference for other hibernating animals.