Abstract: The hypoxia environment of the plateau is a major survival challenge for organisms at high altitudes areas.The genetic basis of high altitude adaptation of animals is complex,and relevant studies mainly focus on comparative genome,population genome and evolutionary genome,and positive selection genes are mainly reflected in the hypoxic inducible factor (HIF) regulatory pathway.At present,more and more attention has been paid to the epigenetic mechanism of animal plateau adaptation.Epigenetics can regulate the plasticity and stability of gene expression,and affect cell function and the ability of organisms to adapt to environmental changes.Studies have shown that plateau organisms have experienced long-term hypoxic adaptation,and show adaptive regulation related to epigenetics.DNA methylation and histone modification are important modifications in epigenetics,which are closely related to altitude adaptation and affect cell function by regulating gene expression levels.HIF is a key transcription factor complex in hypoxic environment,and its stability and activity are regulated by epigenetics.DNA methylation and histone modification directly affect the function of HIF signaling pathway,while epigenetic mechanisms such as non-coding RNA and cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzyme also participate in the regulation of HIF signaling pathway.It is of great significance to deeply understand the relationship between adaptation to high altitude hypoxia environment and epigenetics and the epigenetic mechanism of HIF signaling pathway for revealing the mechanism of adaptive evolution and related diseases.The authors summarized the relationship between high altitude hypoxic environment adaptation and epigenetics,and focused on the mechanism of HIF signaling pathway in epigenetic regulation.

Key words: hypoxic adaptation; epigenetics; HIF signaling pathway; DNA methylation; histone modifications