Immune related gene expression analysis of Macrobrachium nipponense in different hours post-infection by non-O1 Vibrio cholerae

Abstract

Non-O1 Vibrio cholerae is a highly virulent pathogen which has seriously threatened the development of Macrobrachium nipponense in various farms. However, little information is available in relation to underlying mechanisms of host-bacteria interaction in M. nipponense. In this study, we performed transcriptome analysis of M. nipponense at 6 and 12 h post-infection (hpi), and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (P<0.05) were revealed by comparison of gene expression levels between 6 and 12 hpi. The results showed that expression of different immune-related genes was found significantly regulated at 6 hpi than at 12 hpi by transcriptome analysis, which was verified by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). A total of 189 DEGs including 104 up-regulated genes and 85 down-regulated genes from hepatopancreas at 6 hpi, 56 DEGs at 12 hpi were identified, which was much lower than that in the comparison of at 6 hpi and the up-regulated and down-regulated genes were 39 and 17, respectively. Many genes associated with Rap1 signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, ECM-receptor interaction, Endocytosis, Hippo signaling pathway, Ubiquitin mediated proteolysis and Phagosome were positively modified after non-O1 V. cholerae challenge, and most the immune-related pathways were activated at 6 hpi. We selected 6 DEGs and validated their expression level by RT-qPCR. The data generated in this study may provide a valuable resource for further immune response research and offer improved strategies against non-O1 V. cholerae infection in shrimp.