Naked mole rats have distinctive cardiometabolic and genetic adaptations to their underground low-oxygen lifestyles (genetic data)
Cite this dataset
Faulkes, Christopher G. et al. (2024). Naked mole rats have distinctive cardiometabolic and genetic adaptations to their underground low-oxygen lifestyles (genetic data) [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.66t1g1k66
Abstract
The naked mole-rat Heterocephalus glaber is a eusocial mammal exhibiting extreme longevity (37-year lifespan), extraordinary resistance to hypoxia and absence of cardiovascular disease. To identify the mechanisms behind these exceptional traits, metabolomics and RNAseq of cardiac tissue from naked mole-rats were compared to other African mole-rat genera. We identified metabolic and genetic adaptations unique to naked mole-rats including elevated glycogen, thus enabling glycolytic ATP generation during cardiac ischemia. Elevated normoxic expression of HIF-1α was observed while downstream hypoxia-responsive genes were downregulated, suggesting adaptation to low-oxygen environments. Naked mole-rat hearts showed reduced succinate build-up during ischemia and negligible tissue damage following ischemia-reperfusion injury. These adaptive evolutionary traits reflect a unique hypoxic and eusocial lifestyle that collectively may contribute to their longevity and health span.
README: Naked mole rats have distinctive cardiometabolic and genetic adaptations to their underground low-oxygen lifestyles
We performed RNAseq, metabolomics and pathway enrichment analysis on cardiac tissue from naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber) and from seven other members of African mole rat genera, Cape mole-rat (Georychus capensis), Cape dune mole-rat (Bathyergus suillus), Common mole-rat (Cryptomys hottentotus hottentotus), Natal mole-rat (C. h. natalenesis), Mahali mole rat (C. h. mahali), Highveld mole-rat (C. h. pretoriae) and Damaraland mole-rats (Fukomys damarensis) representing differing burrow and soil types, degrees of sociality, lifespan and hypoxia tolerance. In addition, we include the evolutionarily highly divergent hottentot golden mole (Ambysomus hottentotus), an Afrotherian subterranean, solitary mammal, and the C57/BL6 laboratory mouse as a standard mammal control. After RNA sequencing, we removed the reads mapped to rRNAs and get rawdata, then we filtered the low quality reads (More than 20% of the bases qualities are lower than 10), reads with adaptors and reads with unknown bases (N bases more than 5%) to get the clean reads. These are the data uploaded.
Description of the data and file structure
Each CleanData Folder (e.g. CleanData_NakedMolerat.zip) contains subfolders for each of the respective species (e.g. HG1 H. glaber), each of which hold the zipped data in two files (e.g. HG_1.fq.gz and HG2_2.fq.gz) as clean reads for each mole-rat sample as follows:
CleanData_NakedMolerat.zip
* HG1 H. glaber (HG1_1.fq.gz and HG1_2.fq.gz)
* HG2 H. glaber (HG2_1.fq.gz and HG2_2.fq.gz)
* HG3 H. glaber (HG3_1.fq.gz and HG3_2.fq.gz)
* HG4 H. glaber (HG4_1.fq.gz and HG4_2.fq.gz)
* HG5 H. glaber (HG5_1.fq.gz and HG5_2.fq.gz)
* HG6 H. glaber (HG6_1.fq.gz and HG6_2.fq.gz)
CleanData_CapeMolerat.zip
* GC2_hea G. capensis (GC2_hea_1.fq.gz and GC2_hea_2.fq.gz)
* GC5_hea G. capensis (GC5_hea_1.fq.gz and GC5_hea_2.fq.gz)
* GC12_hea G. capensis (GC12_hea_1.fq.gz and GC12_hea_2.fq.gz)
* GC14_hea G. capensis (GC14_hea_1.fq.gz and GC14_hea_2.fq.gz)
* GC18_hea G. capensis (GC18_hea_1.fq.gz and GC18_hea_2.fq.gz)
CleanData_DamaralandMolerat.zip
* FD7_979 F. damarensis (FD7_979_1.fq.gz and FD7_979_2.fq.gz)
* FDA_hea F. damarensis (FDA_hea_1.fq.gz and FDA_hea_2.fq.gz)
* FDB F. damarensis (FDB_1.fq.gz and FDB_2.fq.gz)
* FDD_hea F. damarensis (FDD_1.fq.gz and FDD_2.fq.gz)
* FDQ_107 F. damarensis (FDQ_107_1.fq.gz and FDQ_107_2.fq.gz)
CleanData_HighveldMolerat.zip
* CHP8_hea C. h. pretoriae (CHP8_1.fq.gz and CHP8_2.fq.gz)
* CHP20 C. h. pretoriae (CHP20_1.fq.gz and CHP20_2.fq.gz)
* CHPA C. h. pretoriae (CHPA_1.fq.gz and CHPA_2.fq.gz)
* CHPD C. h. pretoriae (CHPD_1.fq.gz and CHPD_2.fq.gz)
* CHPH_297 C. h. pretoriae (CHPH_297_1.fq.gz and CHPH_297_2.fq.gz)
CleanData_NatalMolerat.zip
* CHNN1 C. h. natalenesis (CHNN1_1.fq.gz and CHNN1_2.fq.gz)
* CHNN2 C. h. natalenesis (CHNN2_1.fq.gz and CHNN2_2.fq.gz)
* CHNN3 C. h. natalenesis (CHNN3_1.fq.gz and CHNN3_2.fq.gz)
* CHNP1 C. h. natalenesis (CHNP1_1.fq.gz and CHNP1_2.fq.gz)
* CHNR3 C. h. natalenesis (CHNR3_1.fq.gz and CHNR3_2.fq.gz)
CleanData_MahaliMolerat.zip
* CHM4 C. h. mahali (CHM4_1.fq.gz and CHM4_2.fq.gz)
* CHM7 C. h. mahali (CHM7_1.fq.gz and CHM7_2.fq.gz)
* CHM8 C. h. mahali (CHM8_1.fq.gz and CHM8_2.fq.gz)
* CHM9 C. h. mahali (CHM9_1.fq.gz and CHM9_2.fq.gz)
* CHM10 C. h. mahali (CHM10_1.fq.gz and CHM10_2.fq.gz)
CleanData_CommonMolerat.zip
* CHH1 C. h. hottentotus (CHH1_1.fq.gz and CHH1_2.fq.gz)
* CHHA C. h. hottentotus (CHHA_1.fq.gz and CHHA_2.fq.gz)
* CHHB C. h. hottentotus (CHHB_1.fq.gz and CHHB_2.fq.gz)
* CHHD C. h. hottentotus (CHHD_1.fq.gz and CHHD_2.fq.gz)
CleanData_CapeDuneMolerat.zip
* BS3 B. suillus (BS3_1.fq.gz and BS3_2.fq.gz)
* BS4 B. suillus (BS4_1.fq.gz and BS4_2.fq.gz)
* BS9 B. suillus (BS9_1.fq.gz and BS9_2.fq.gz)
* BS13 B. suillus (BS13_1.fq.gz and BS13_2.fq.gz)
CleanData_HottentotGoldenMole.zip
* AH4 Ambysomus hottentotus (AH4_1.fq.gz and AH4_2.fq.gz)
* AHN3 Ambysomus hottentotus (AHN3_1.fq.gz and AHN3_2.fq.gz)
CleanData_BL6Mouse
* BL6_H1 (BL6_H1_1.fq.gz and BL6_H1_2.fq.gz)
* BL6_H2 (BL6_H2_1.fq.gz and BL6_H2_2.fq.gz)
* BL6_H3 (BL6_H3_1.fq.gz and BL6_H3_2.fq.gz)
* BL6_H4 (BL6_H4_1.fq.gz and BL6_H4_2.fq.gz)
* BL6_H5 (BL6_H5_1.fq.gz and BL6_H5_2.fq.gz)
Methods
Heart transcriptomes from various African mole-rat species and the Hottentot golden mole. Total RNA extraction and analysis was performed commercially by BGI Tech Solutions (Hong Kong).
Funding
Wellcome Trust, Award: 221604/Z/20/Z
Barts Charity, Award: G-002145
British Heart Foundation, Award: FS/4YPhD/P/20/34016
Wellcome Trust, Award: 220257/Z/20/Z
Medical Research Council, Award: MC_UU_00028/4