POSTER ABSTRACTS
profiles in these distinct zones have not been explored. In this study, we performed both stranded RNA-seq and PacBio Iso-seq to profile the placental transcriptome, including the maternal and fetal side of TZ (TZr and TZs), PZ, allantochorion, and umbilical cord. On average, we generated 30,000 high-quality assembled HiFi reads/transcripts per transcriptome from the PacBio data. Over 11,000 expressed genes were detected in the short-read RNA-seq data. Results showed that TZr and TZs had almost identical transcriptome profiles that differed significantly from PZ, with 364 differentially expressed genes (DEGs). According to to GO analyses, highly expressed DEGs in PZ were enriched for cellular transport functions, including metal/organic iron transport, cellular response to organic cyclic and oxygen-containing compound, and carboxylic/organic acid transport. DEGs with higher expression levels in PZ are functionally enriched in immune system regulation, muscle contraction, and extracellular matrix organization. Our study is the first to characterize the full-length transcripts and explore the transcriptomic function of zonary placental tissues in dogs. The functional specialization discovered here provides new insights into canine placental biology. #65 Genomic assessment of cancer susceptibility in the threatened Catalina Island Fox (Urocyon littoralis catalinae) Sarah A. Hendricks1, Paul A. Hohenlohe1, Brian W. Davis2 bdavis@cvm.tamu.edu 1Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA, 2Texas A&M School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, College Station, TX, USA Small effective population sizes raise the probability of extinction by increasing the frequency of potentially deleterious alleles and reducing fitness. However, the extent to which cancers play a role in fitness reduction of genetically depauperate wildlife populations is unknown. Santa Cat-alina island foxes (Urocyon littoralis catalinae) sampled in 2007-2008 have a high prevalence of ce-ruminous gland tumors among those four years of age and older, which was not detected in the population prior to a recent bottleneck caused by a canine distemper epidemic. The disease appears to be associated with inflammation from chronic ear mite (Otodectes) infections and secondary elevated levels of Staphyloccus pseudointermedius bacterial infections. However, no other envi-ronmental factors to date have been found to be associated with elevated cancer risk in this pop-ulation. Here, we used whole genome sequencing of case and control individuals from two islands to identify candidate loci associated with cancer based on genetic divergence, nucleotide diversity, allele frequency spectrum, and runs of homozygosity. We identified several candidate loci based on genomic signatures and putative gene functions, suggesting that cancer susceptibility in this population may be polygenic. Due to the efforts of a recovery program and weak fitness effects of late-onset disease, the population size has increased, which may allow selection to be more ef-fective in removing these presumably slightly deleterious alleles. Long-term monitoring of the disease alleles as well as overall genetic diversity will provide crucial information for the long-term persistence of this threatened population.
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