据中国之声《央广新闻》报道，一个由韩国、中国、俄罗斯、蒙古等国研究者组成的国际科研团队，近期成功破译了全球首个东北虎基因组。
在研究中，科研人员历时三年对一只来自韩国的9岁雄性的东北虎进行了全基因组的测序和分析，这也是人类首次获得老虎的全基因组图谱，有助于研究大型猫科动物的遗传多样性和保护濒危动物。
分析显示，老虎的基因组中有20226个控制蛋白质编码的基因，从中可以分析出与大型猫科动物肉食特性和高肌肉强度相关的一系列基因。为了对大型猫科动物进行系统比较及分析，科研人员还对一只白色的孟加拉虎、一只非洲狮以及一只白色的非洲狮和一只雪豹进行了基因组测序。在老虎和其他的多种哺乳动物基因组对比中发现，老虎和家猫的基因同源性非常的高，有98.8%的基因编码区和98.3%的同线性保守区相吻合。
东北虎又称西伯利亚虎，是现存体重最大的猫科动物。据估计，现在全球存量不超过4千只，如果不采用自然保护区和人工繁育的办法，可能在不久的将来，东北虎将彻底离开人们的视线。（生物谷 Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐的英文摘要
Nature Communications doi:10.1038/ncomms3433
The tiger genome and comparative analysis with lion and snow leopard genomes
Yun Sung Cho, Li Hu, Haolong Hou, Hang Lee, Jiaohui Xu, Soowhan Kwon, Sukhun Oh, Hak-Min Kim, Sungwoong Jho, Sangsoo Kim, Young-Ah Shin, Byung Chul Kim, Hyunmin Kim, Chang-uk Kim, Shu-Jin Luo, Warren E. Johnson, Klaus-Peter Koepfli, Anne Schmidt-Küntzel, Jason A. Turner, Laurie Marker, Cindy Harper, Susan M. Miller, Wilhelm Jacobs, Laura D. Bertola, Tae Hyung Kim, Sunghoon Lee, Qian Zhou, Hyun-Ju Jung, Xiao Xu, Priyvrat Gadhvi, Pengwei Xu, Yingqi Xiong, Yadan Luo, Shengkai Pan, Caiyun Gou, Xiuhui Chu, Jilin Zhang, Sanyang Liu, Jing He, Ying Chen, Linfeng Yang, Yulan Yang, Jiaju He, Sha Liu, Junyi Wang, Chul Hong Kim, Hwanjong Kwak, Jong-Soo Kim, Seungwoo Hwang, Junsu Ko, Chang-Bae Kim, Sangtae Kim, Damdin Bayarlkhagva, Woon Kee Paek, Seong-Jin Kim, Stephen J. O’Brien, Jun Wang & Jong Bhak
Tigers and their close relatives (Panthera) are some of the world’s most endangered species. Here we report the de novo assembly of an Amur tiger whole-genome sequence as well as the genomic sequences of a white Bengal tiger, African lion, white African lion and snow leopard. Through comparative genetic analyses of these genomes, we find genetic signatures that may reflect molecular adaptations consistent with the big cats’ hypercarnivorous diet and muscle strength. We report a snow leopard-specific genetic determinant in EGLN1 (Met39>Lys39), which is likely to be associated with adaptation to high altitude. We also detect a TYR260G>A mutation likely responsible for the white lion coat colour. Tiger and cat genomes show similar repeat composition and an appreciably conserved synteny. Genomic data from the five big cats provide an invaluable resource for resolving easily identifiable phenotypes evident in very close, but distinct, species.
