An essay about the research of sinocyclocheilus cavefish whole genome has been published on BMC Biology on January 1, 2016. This research was completed by team from Kunming Institute of Zoology, CAS and team from Shenzhen BGI Institution.

Cave biota is one of the most mysterious species in the world. They always live in the dark caves. Because of their inaccessible character, they are unknown to mankind. However, they are the most appropriate material to study how to survive in extreme environment. There are very typical physical characteristics on some cavefish, such as transparent body, degraded eyes. The previous researches showed that China had the most quality of typical cavefish and there were still lots of new undiscovered species. However, compared with the Astyanaxmexicanus as traditional cavefish, the study on Chinese cavefish was limited.The formation process of these unique cave characteristics is still a bigmystery.

Sinocyclocheilus is apeculiar fish in China and it is a representative species among Chinese cavefish.This species of fish has various cave characteristics, some have obvious cavecharacteristics, while some are similar with ordinary fish. The research teamchose three types of sinocyclocheilus as the objects which weresinocyclocheilus graham, sinocyclocheilus rhinocerous and sinocyclocheilus anshuiensis. The researchers analyzed the whole genomes of three types of sinocyclocheilus through highthroughput sequencing technology. They found that the size of whole genome was1.75GB, 1.73GB and 1.68GB.

Through the calculating of genomeheterozygosity, they rebuilt the population history of three species. Finally,they found that the population dynamics were related to the uplift of the Tibet Plateau.

This research has firstly reported the whole genome of three types of Chinese cavefish which provided animportant foundation for the follow-up study of cavefish. The research teamhopes that the scientific research could promote the protection of cavefish.Moreover, the team appeals more people to take part in the protection of cavefish.

Source: Kunming Institute ofZoology, CAS

Time: 2016.1.7