Hypoxia affects the physiology of cells and organisms; however, the mechanisms associated with hypoxia adaptation remain unknown in Tibetan chickens. In this study, we aimed to identify long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) involved in hypoxia adaptation in Tibetan chickens and Daheng broilers, to provide insights into the mechanisms underlying hypoxia induction. RNA sequencing results revealed that a total of 5504 lncRNAs and 16,779 microRNAs were differentially expressed in four Tibetan chickens and four Daheng broilers; 70 lncRNAs were up-regulated and 113 lncRNAs were down-regulated in the Tibetan chickens compared to the expression levels in the Daheng broilers. The differentially expressed lncRNAs (DElncRNAs) were enriched in the following Gene ontology terms: protein complex localization, small-molecule metabolic process, and RNA splicing. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses revealed that the DElncRNAs were mainly enriched in pathways that regulate cell junctions and intercellular spaces and oxygen or energy metabolism, mainly involved in hypoxic adaption. Moreover, a predicted ceRNA network with five DElncRNAs interacted with three miRNAs that acted on 42 pathways through 19 target genes. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to verify that the expression levels of ENSGALG00000008047, ENSGALG00000050044, and ENSGALG00000053982 were significantly lower in Tibetan chickens than in the Daheng broilers, consistent with the RNA sequencing results. We obtained lncRNA expression profiles for the heart tissue of Tibetan chickens for the first time and have provided novel data that may aid research on biological adaptation to hypoxic stress.

缺氧影响细胞和生物体的生理。然而，与低氧适应有关的机制在藏鸡中仍然未知。在这项研究中，我们旨在鉴定参与藏鸡和大恒肉鸡低氧适应的长非编码RNA（lncRNA），以提供对低氧诱导的潜在机制的认识。RNA测序结果表明，在4只藏鸡和4只大亨肉鸡中总共表达了5504个lncRNA和16779个microRNA。与大恒肉鸡的表达水平相比，藏鸡中有70个lncRNA上调，而113个lncRNA下调。差异表达的lncRNA（DElncRNA）丰富了以下基因本体术语：蛋白质复合物定位，小分子代谢过程和RNA剪接。《京都议定书》的基因和基因组百科全书显示，DElncRNAs主要富集调节细胞连接和细胞间空间以及氧气或能量代谢的途径，主要参与低氧适应。此外，具有五个DElncRNA的预测ceRNA网络与三个miRNA相互作用，这些miRNA通过19个靶基因作用于42条途径。实时定量聚合酶链反应用于验证藏鸡中ENSGALG00000008047，ENSGALG00000050044和ENSGALG00000053982的表达水平明显低于大亨肉鸡，这与RNA测序结果一致。我们首次获得了藏族鸡心脏组织的lncRNA表达谱，并提供了有助于研究对低氧胁迫的生物学适应性的新数据。