Abstract
Shrimp aquaculture is severely affected by WSSV. Despite an increasing effort to understand host/virus interaction by characterizing changes in gene expression (GE) following WSSV infection, the majority of published studies have focussed on a single time-point, providing limited insight on the development of host-pathogen interaction over the infection cycle. Using RNA-seq, we contrasted GE in gills of Litopenaeus vannamei at 1.5, 18 and 56 hours-post-infection (hpi), between WSSV-challenged and control shrimps. Time course analysis revealed 5097 differentially expressed genes: 63 DEGs were viral genes and their expression in WSSV group either peaked at 18 hpi (and decreased at 56 hpi) or increased linearly up to 56 hpi, suggesting a different role played by these genes during the course of infection. The remaining DEGs showed that WSSV altered the expression of metabolic, immune, apoptotic and cytoskeletal genes and was able to inhibit NF-κB and JAK/STAT pathways. Interestingly, GE changes were not consistent through the course of infection but were dynamic with time, suggesting the complexity of host-pathogen interaction. These data offer novel insights into the cellular functions that are affected during the course of infection and ultimately provide a valuable resource towards our understanding of the host-pathogen dynamics and its variation with time.
Highlights
In 1991 WSD was first reported in shrimp farms in China and Taipei[4] and since it has spread globally
Illumina RNA sequencing was conducted on gill tissue extracted from L. vannamei (WSSV infected, “White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV)”, and control, “Ctrl”) at 1.5 hpi (“WSSV 1.5 h”, “Ctrl 1.5 h”), 18 hpi (“WSSV 18 h”, “Ctrl 18 h”) and 56 hpi (“WSSV 56 h”, “Ctrl 56 h”) from 3 different biological samples per treatment per time point
In order to improve our knowledge on host-pathogen interaction we performed a Time Course analysis to find DE genes with statistical temporal differences among and within treatments
Summary
In 1991 WSD was first reported in shrimp farms in China and Taipei[4] and since it has spread globally (cumulative losses exceeded $10bn in the period 1993–20064,6). Molecular and transcriptomic studies have reported alterations in Gene Expression (GE) of haemolymph coagulation[15,16,20,23], apoptosis[23,27], ubiquitination[28], heat shock proteins[9,20], RNA-mediated silencing[9], growth-related genes[20] and immune genes[29] (e.g. C-type lectins, Penaeidins) and activation/inhibition of pathways related to immunity[27,30,31] (e.g. NF-κB, JAK/STAT and Wnt pathways) All these results underline major changes in the physiology of infected hosts and suggest the complexity of host-pathogen interaction. These data offer novel insights into the cellular functions that are affected during the course of infection and provide a valuable resource towards our understanding of the dynamics between host and pathogen and its variation with time
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