The Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) mainly lives on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and it adopts multiple strategies to adapt to high-altitude environments. According to the principle of convergent evolution as expressed in genes and traits, the Himalayan marmot might display similar changes to other local species at the molecular level. In this study, we obtained high-quality sequences of the CYTB gene, CYTB protein, ND3 gene, and ND3 protein of representative species (n = 20) from NCBI, and divided them into the marmot group (n = 11), the plateau group (n = 8), and the Himalayan marmot (n = 1). To explore whether plateau species have convergent evolution on the microscale level, we built a phylogenetic tree, calculated genetic distance, and analyzed the conservation and space structure of Himalayan marmot ND3 protein. The marmot group and Himalayan marmots were in the same branch of the phylogenetic tree for the CYTB gene and CYTB protein, and mean genetic distance was 0.106 and 0.055, respectively, which was significantly lower than the plateau group. However, the plateau group and the Himalayan marmot were in the same branch of the phylogenetic tree, and the genetic distance was only 10% of the marmot group for the ND3 protein, except Marmota flaviventris. In addition, some sites of the ND3 amino acid sequence of Himalayan marmots were conserved from the plateau group, but not the marmot group. This could lead to different structures and functional diversifications. These findings indicate that Himalayan marmots have adapted to the plateau environment partly through convergent evolution of the ND3 protein with other plateau animals, however, this protein is not the only strategy to adapt to high altitudes, as there may have other methods to adapt to this environment.

中文翻译：

---

ND3蛋白在喜马拉雅土拨鼠与一些高海拔动物的融合进化中

喜马拉雅土拨鼠（Marmota himalayana）主要生活在青藏高原上，并采取多种策略来适应高海拔环境。根据基因和性状表达的趋同进化原理，喜马拉雅土拨鼠可能在分子水平上与其他本地物种表现出相似的变化。在这项研究中，我们从NCBI获得了代表物种（n = 20）的CYTB基因，CYTB蛋白，ND3基因和ND3蛋白的高质量序列，并将其分为旱獭组（n = 11），高原组（n = 8）和喜马拉雅土拨鼠（n = 1）。为了研究高原物种在微观水平上是否具有趋同进化，我们构建了系统树，计算了遗传距离，并分析了喜马拉雅土拨鼠ND3蛋白的保守性和空间结构。土拨鼠群和喜马拉雅土拨鼠的CYTB基因和CYTB蛋白在系统树的同一分支中，平均遗传距离分别为0.106和0.055，明显低于高原组。然而，高原组和喜马拉雅土拨鼠在系统发育树的同一分支中，除了黄褐猴以外，ND3蛋白质的遗传距离仅为土拨鼠组的10％。另外，喜马拉雅土拨鼠的ND3氨基酸序列的某些位点是高原组而不是土拨鼠组的保守位点。这可能导致不同的结构和功能多样化。这些发现表明，喜马拉雅土拨鼠已部分通过ND3蛋白与其他高原动物的融合进化而适应了高原环境，但是，