bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/813501; this version posted October 21, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. Genomic signature of ongoing alkaline adaptation in a Schizothoracine fish (Cyprinidae) inhabiting soda lake on the Tibetan Plateau Chao Tong1,2,*, Miao Li3, Yongtao Tang1, Kai Zhao1* 1 Key Laboratory of Adaptation and Evolution of Plateau Biota, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xining, 810001, China; 2 Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA; 3 Center for Advanced Retinal and Ocular Therapeutics, Scheie Eye Institute, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA * Corresponding author: Chao Tong,
[email protected], https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5202-5507 Kai Zhao,
[email protected] bioRxiv preprint doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/813501; this version posted October 21, 2019. The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not certified by peer review) is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under aCC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. Abstract Comparative genomics has elucidate the molecular footprints of adaptations to extreme environments at high altitude including hypoxia, but insight into the genomic basis of saline and alkaline adaptation in highland fish has rarely been provided. The increasing of water salinization is a growing threat to Tibetan endemic fish species.