Transcriptome analysis of the pika heart tissue

High-altitude environments pose intense stresses for living organisms, which has driven striking phenotypic and genetic adaptations. For example, hypoxia resistance, cold tolerance, enhanced metabolic capacity and enhanced body masses. As one of the most successful and dominant mammals on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QHTP), the plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) has adapted to the extreme environment on the top of this region and exhibits tolerance to cold and hypoxia, which is in contrast to its closely related species that inhabit the peripheral alpine bush or forests. To explore the potential genetic mechanisms underlying the adaptations of O. curzoniae to a high-altitude environment, we sequenced transcriptomes from the heart tissues of the adult plateau pikas and Gansu pika (O. cansus), the former with comparisons from sites of two different altitudes.