Publications by authors named "Lemei Zhan"

Continual climate change strongly influences temperature conditions worldwide, making ectothermic animals as suitable species for studying the potential impact of climate change on global biodiversity. However, the study of how lizards distributed at different latitudes respond to climate change at the transcriptome level is still insufficient. According to the Climatic Variability Hypothesis (CVH), the range of climate fluctuations experienced by terrestrial animals throughout the year increases with latitude, so individuals at higher latitudes should exhibit greater thermal plasticity to cope with fluctuating environments.

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Article Synopsis
  • Anguimorpha is a group of lizards within Squamata, known for distinct adaptations such as limb loss that affect their ecological roles and locomotion, particularly in the subfamily Anguinae.
  • Mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) are crucial for studying energy metabolism and evolutionary adaptations in reptiles, providing insights into the adaptive significance of limb loss.
  • The study sequenced mitogenomes from various lizard species and identified 10 positively selected sites linked to energy requirements in limbless lizards, using data from the NCBI database to construct phylogenetic trees.
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In the context of global warming, the frequency of severe weather occurrences, such as unexpected cold spells and heat waves, will grow, as well as the intensity of these natural disasters. Lizards, as a large group of reptiles, are ectothermic. Their body temperatures are predominantly regulated by their environment and temperature variations directly impact their behavior and physiological activities.

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Potamanthidae belongs to the superfamily Ephemeroidea but has no complete mt genome released in the NCBI (except for two unchecked and one partial mt genome). Since the sister clade to Potamanthidae has always been controversial, we sequenced seven mt genomes of Potamanthidae (two species from and five species from ) in order to rebuild the phylogenetic relationships of Potamanthidae in this study. The divergence time of Potamanthidae was also investigated by utilizing five fossil calibration points because of the indeterminate origin time.

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Ecological factors related to climate extremes have a significant influence on the adaptability of organisms, especially for ectotherms such as reptiles that are sensitive to temperature change. Climate extremes can seriously affect the survival and internal physiology of lizards, sometimes even resulting in the loss of local populations or even complete extinction. Indeed, studies have shown that the expression levels of the nuclear genes and mitochondrial genomes of reptiles change under low-temperature stress.

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