Expression of HIF-1 alpha and Its Target Genes in the Nanorana parkeri Heart : Implications for High Altitude Adaptation

Abstract

Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1α) and its target genes vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and transferrins (TF) play an important role in native endothermic animals’ adaptation to the high altitude environments. For ectothermic animals – especially frogs – it remains undetermined whether HIF-1α and its target genes (VEGF and TF) play an important role in high altitude adaptation, too. In this study, we compared the gene sequences and expression of HIF-1α and its target genes (VEGF and TF) between three Nanorana parkeri populations from different altitudes (3008 m a.s.l., 3440 m a.s.l. and 4312 m a.s.l.). We observed that the cDNA sequences of HIF-1A exhibited high sequence similarity (99.38%) among the three altitudinally separated populations; but with increasing altitude, the expression of HIF-1A and its target genes (VEGF and TF) increased significantly. These results indicate that HIF-1α plays an important role in N. parkeri adaptation to the high altitude, similar to its role in endothermic animals.