The specific expression pattern of globin mRNAs in Tibetan chicken during late embryonic stage under hypoxia

Tibetan chicken (Gallus gallus) is a specific chicken breed with strong ability to resist hypoxia, especially during embryonic stage. Though this breed has lived in Tibet plateau for thousands of years, the adaptive mechanism in response to hypoxia is still unknown. In order to obtain a better understanding of the mechanism of hypoxic adaptability in high altitude, we analyzed the mRNA expression pattern of globins in the present study. The fertilized eggs from Tibetan chicken and dwarf recessive white chicken breeds were incubated under normoxic (21% O2) and hypoxic (13% O2) conditions, equivalent to the altitude of 3600 m. We observed that Tibetan chicken embryos had higher hatchability (48%) in hypoxia than their lowland controls (7.8%). Northern blot showed that globin mRNA expression in Tibetan chicken embryos differed greatly from lowland controls under hypoxia. The expressions of four dominant globin mRNAs, named αA, αD, βA and βH, were significantly induced under hypoxia. Tibetan chicken embryos had lower globin mRNA level in red cells than that of lowland controls at day 19 (P < 0.05). Based on real-time PCR the same result was confirmed. Furthermore, we observed accumulation of globins induced by hypoxia in red cells by performing the separation of globin analysis, showing higher level of globins in red cells of Tibetan chicken embryos than that of lowland chicken embryos. Overall, our results provide new evidence that flexible regulation of globins at the level of transcription and translation may play a role in allowing the Tibetan chicken embryo to resist hypoxia.