Beijing Key Laboratory of Captive Wildlife Technologies, Beijing Zoo, Beijing, China.
Beijing Zoo, Beijing, China.
PLoS One. 2019 Sep 25;14(9):e0222292. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222292. eCollection 2019.
The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is a native species to China. They are rare and endangered and are regarded as the 'national treasure' and 'living fossil' in China. For the time being, there are only about 2500 giant pandas in the world. Therefore, we still have to do much more efforts to protect the giant pandas. In captive wildlife, the cataract incidence of mammalian always increases with age. Currently, in China, the proportion of elderly giant pandas who suffering from cataract has reached 20%. The eye disorder thus has a strong influence on the physical health and life quality of the elderly giant pandas. To discover the genes associated with the pathogenesis of cataract in the elderly giant panda and achieve the goal of early assessment and diagnosis of cataract in giant pandas during aging, we performed whole genome methylation sequencing in 3 giant pandas with cataract and 3 healthy giant pandas using methylation-dependent restriction-site associated DNA sequencing (MethylRAD). In the present study, we obtained 3.62M reads, on average, for each sample, and identified 116 and 242 differentially methylated genes (DMGs) between the two groups under the context of CCGG and CCWGG on genome, respectively. Further KEGG and GO enrichment analyses determined a total of 110 DMGs that are involved in the biological functions associated with pathogenesis of cataract. Among them, 6 DMGs including EEA1, GARS, SLITRK4, GSTM3, CASP3, and EGLN3 have been linked with cataract in old age.
大熊猫（Ailuropoda melanoleuca）是中国的特有物种。它们数量稀少，濒临灭绝，被视为中国的“国宝”和“活化石”。目前，全世界仅有约 2500 只大熊猫。因此，我们仍需付出更多努力来保护大熊猫。在圈养野生动物中，哺乳动物白内障的发病率通常会随年龄增长而增加。目前，中国患白内障的老年大熊猫比例已达到 20%。这种眼部疾病对老年大熊猫的身体健康和生活质量有很大影响。为了发现与老年大熊猫白内障发病机制相关的基因，并在大熊猫衰老过程中实现白内障的早期评估和诊断，我们使用甲基化依赖型限制性内切酶相关 DNA 测序（MethylRAD）对 3 只患有白内障的大熊猫和 3 只健康大熊猫进行了全基因组甲基化测序。在本研究中，我们为每个样本平均获得了 3.62M 个reads，并在 CCGG 和 CCWGG 两种条件下分别在基因组水平上鉴定到了 116 个和 242 个差异甲基化基因（DMGs）。进一步的 KEGG 和 GO 富集分析确定了总共 110 个 DMGs 参与了与白内障发病机制相关的生物学功能。其中，6 个 DMGs，包括 EEA1、GARS、SLITRK4、GSTM3、CASP3 和 EGLN3，与老年白内障有关。
