The Plateau Zokor (Eospalax baileyi) is an indigenous underground rodent in the Tibetan Plateau, belonging to the subgenus of convex skull zokor. It is widely distributed in alpine grasslands and alpine meadows in Qinghai, southern Gansu and Western Sichuan. Plateau Zokor has strong and strong forelimbs. Forelimbs are often used to dig, and the hard nose pad of its head is also used to dig soil and transport soft soil. Plateau Zokor inhabits in the cave environment of the Qinghai Tibet plateau at an altitude of 2000 – 4200m. After long-term natural selection, plateau zokor has been able to adapt to the extreme living environment of low oxygen, high cold and high carbon dioxide. It is representative and important to explore the intestinal microbiome mechanism of hypoxia adaptation of indigenous animals in Qinghai Tibet Plateau by taking Plateau Zokor as the research object.
References:
- Shao, Y. et al. Genetic adaptations of the plateau zokor in high-elevation burrows. Scientific Reports 5, 17262 (2015).
- Tang, L.Z. et al. Allopatric divergence and phylogeographic structure of the plateau zokor (Eospalax baileyi), a fossorial rodent endemic to the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. Journal of Biogeography 37, 657-668 (2010).
- Cai, Z. et al. Adaptive Transcriptome Profiling of Subterranean Zokor, Myospalax baileyi, to High- Altitude Stresses in Tibet. Scientific Reports 8, 4671 (2018).