Abstract
Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is one of the highly contagious viral disease, characterized by fever, sore mouth, conjunctivitis, gastroenteritis, and pneumonia, primarily affecting sheep and goats. Reports suggested variable host response in goats and sheep and this host response vis-a-vis the expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) has not been investigated. Here, miRNAs were sequenced and proteomics data were generated to identify the role of differentially expressed miRNA (DEmiRNA) in PPR virus (PPRV) infected lung and spleen tissues of sheep and goats. In lungs, 67 and 37 DEmiRNAs have been identified in goats and sheep, respectively. Similarly, in spleen, 50 and 56 DEmiRNAs were identified in goats and sheep, respectively. A total of 20 and 11 miRNAs were found to be common differentially expressed in both the species in PPRV infected spleen and lung, respectively. Six DEmiRNAs—miR-21-3p, miR-1246, miR-27a-5p, miR-760-3p, miR-320a, and miR-363 were selected based on their role in viral infections, apoptosis, and fold change. The target prediction analysis of these six selected DEmiRNAs from the proteome data generated, revealed involvement of more number of genes in lung and spleen of goats than in sheep. On gene ontology analysis of host target genes these DEmiRNAs were found to regulate several immune response signaling pathways. It was observed that the pathways viz. T cell receptor signaling, Rap1 signaling, Toll-like receptor signaling, and B cell receptor signaling governed by DEmiRNAs were more perturbed in goats than in sheep. The data suggests that PPRV-induced miR-21-3p, miR-320a, and miR-363 might act cooperatively to enhance viral pathogenesis in the lung and spleen of sheep by downregulating several immune response genes. The study gives an important insight into the molecular pathogenesis of PPR by identifying that the PPRV—Izatnagar/94 isolate elicits a strong host response in goats than in sheep.
Highlights
MicroRNAs are an important part of the host’s regulatory system, involved in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in animals, plants, and some DNA viruses (Sevignani et al, 2006)
Viral infection in the lung and spleen of sheep and goats infected with PPR virus (PPRV) was confirmed by RT-PCR of 351 bp N gene amplicon in lung and spleen (Supplementary Figure S1)
The viral infection was further confirmed by sandwich ELISA and qRT-PCR in both lung and spleen of goats and sheep
Summary
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an important part of the host’s regulatory system, involved in post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression in animals, plants, and some DNA viruses (Sevignani et al, 2006). It has been suggested that miRNAs may be the effectors in controlling immune regulation, including cellular differentiation and immune response (Rodriguez et al, 2007; Thai et al, 2007; Johnnidis et al, 2008). They are considered as the centered factors in the interaction network between viruses and host. Studies demonstrated that numerous cellular miRNAs (host miRNAs) play a regulatory role in the host–virus interaction network (Scaria et al, 2006; Grassmann and Jeang, 2008)
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