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Published on: August 8, 2017
Sex- and age-dependent physiological adaptation of captive père david's deer revealed by multi-omics analysis
Rongji Yu1, Shumiao Zhang2, Yiping Li2
1Department of Cell Biology, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, 410013, China.
Background:
Understanding how age and sex influence molecular and physiological changes is essential for studying endangered species, particularly Père David's deer, which is extinct in the wild. In this study, multi-omics analyses were performed to investigate transcriptomic, metabolomic, and proteomic dynamics in male and female Père David's deer across different developmental stages under captive conditions.
Results:
The results revealed sex- and stage-specific molecular trajectories, with males showing enhanced ion metabolism during early life and females exhibiting increased lipid metabolism during the subadult stage. A substantial proportion of differentially abundant metabolites and differentially expressed proteins were associated with immune and inflammatory processes. Transcriptome-based age estimation indicated that individuals at the Fawn stage exhibited younger transcriptomic profiles, and enrichment analysis of highly weighted genes highlighted immune-related pathways. In addition, transcriptomic deconvolution analysis revealed coordinated alterations in innate and adaptive immune cell populations during development.
Conclusions:
These findings provide a comprehensive multi-omics characterization of molecular and immune dynamics in captive Père David's deer and improve understanding of developmental and sex-associated biological variation in this endangered species.
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