Abstract
BackgroundHaemonchus contortus is a common bloodsucking nematode causing widespread economic loss in agriculture. Upon H. contortus infection, a series of host responses is elicited, especially those related to T lymphocyte immunity. Existing studies mainly focus on the general immune responses of sheep T lymphocyte to H. contortus, lacking investigations at the molecular level. The objective of this study was to obtain a systematic transcriptional profiling of the T lymphocytes in H. contortus primary-infected sheep.MethodsNematode-free sheep were orally infected once with H. contortus L3s. T lymphocyte samples were collected from the peripheral blood of 0, 3, 30 and 60 days post infection (dpi) infected sheep. Microarrays were used to compare gene transcription levels between samples. Quantitative RT-PCR was employed to validate the microarray data. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway analysis were utilized for the annotation of differentially expressed genes.ResultsOur microarray data was consistent with qPCR results. From microarrays, 853, 242 and 42 differentially expressed genes were obtained in the 3d vs. 0d, 30d vs. 0d and 60d vs. 0d comparison groups, respectively. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway analysis indicated that these genes were involved in metabolism, signaling, cell growth and immune system processes. Functional analysis of significant differentially expressed genes, such as SLC9A3R2, ABCB9, COMMD4, SUGT1, FCER1G, GSK3A, PAK4 and FCER2, revealed a crucial association with cellular homeostasis maintenance and immune response. Our data suggested that maintaining both effective immunological response and natural cellular activity are important for T lymphocytes in fighting against H. contortus infection.ConclusionsOur results provide a substantial list of candidate genes in sheep T lymphocytes response to H. contortus infection, and contribute novel insights into a general immune response upon infection.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13071-015-0844-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Haemonchus contortus is a common bloodsucking nematode causing widespread economic loss in agriculture
As the sheep genome has yet to be sequenced, we used microarray composed of ovine sequences and useful sequences from other species, to identify genes that were significantly differentially expressed in the various stages in sheep T lymphocytes upon H. contortus infection
This inference is supported by the fecal egg count (FEC) during H. contortus infection and the final abomasal necropsy, where FEC peaked at 2,400 eggs per gram while only a few adult nematodes were found at the point of abomasal necropsy, even though each sheep was infected with as many as 17,000 L3s
Summary
Haemonchus contortus is a common bloodsucking nematode causing widespread economic loss in agriculture. Upon H. contortus infection, a series of host responses is elicited, especially those related to T lymphocyte immunity. Existing studies mainly focus on the general immune responses of sheep T lymphocyte to H. contortus, lacking investigations at the molecular level. Whilst chemical control is the main strategy [2], evolution of drug resistance and residues severely reduces the success of anthelmintic treatment programs [3,4] After that L4s arrive at the abomasums ready to parasitize at 3–5 days post infection (dpi). Before reaching adulthood, they need to escape from the host’s immune system, avoiding host’s rejection. The adults begin to lay eggs at approximately 18 dpi and the parasitic load peak by 25–30
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