State Key Laboratory of Grassland and Agro-ecosystem, Institute of Innovation Ecology and School of Life Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
The Supercomputing Center, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
Mol Biol Evol. 2021 Aug 23;38(9):3676-3680. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msab134.
Structural variants (SVs) represent an important genetic resource for both natural and artificial selection. Here we present a chromosome-scale reference genome for domestic yak (Bos grunniens) that has longer contigs and scaffolds (N50 44.72 and 114.39 Mb, respectively) than reported for any other ruminant genome. We further obtained long-read resequencing data for 6 wild and 23 domestic yaks and constructed a genetic SV map of 372,220 SVs that covers the geographic range of the yaks. The majority of the SVs contains repetitive sequences and several are in or near genes. By comparing SVs in domestic and wild yaks, we identified genes that are predominantly related to the nervous system, behavior, immunity, and reproduction and may have been targeted by artificial selection during yak domestication. These findings provide new insights in the domestication of animals living at high altitude and highlight the importance of SVs in animal domestication.
结构变异（SV）是自然和人工选择的重要遗传资源。我们为家养牦牛（Bos grunniens）构建了一个染色体水平的参考基因组，与其他反刍动物基因组相比，其 contigs 和 scaffolds 更长（N50 分别为 44.72 和 114.39 Mb）。我们进一步获得了 6 只野生牦牛和 23 只家养牦牛的长读重测序数据，并构建了一个包含 372220 个 SV 的遗传 SV 图谱，涵盖了牦牛的地理分布范围。大多数 SV 包含重复序列，其中一些位于或靠近基因。通过比较家养和野生牦牛中的 SV，我们鉴定出了主要与神经系统、行为、免疫和生殖相关的基因，这些基因可能是牦牛驯化过程中人工选择的目标。这些发现为生活在高海拔地区的动物驯化提供了新的见解，并强调了 SV 在动物驯化中的重要性。
