Abstract
Contagious ecthyma is a highly contagious disease with worldwide distribution, which is caused by the Orf virus (ORFV) belonging to the Parapoxvirus. To study the alteration of host gene expression in response to ORFV infection at the transcriptional level, several young small-tailed Han sheep were inoculated with ORFV, and their oral mucosa tissue samples (T0, T3, T7 and T15) were collected on day 0, 3, 7 and 15 after ORFV infection respectively. RNA-seq transcriptome comparisons were performed, showing that 1928, 3219 and 2646 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified among T3 vs. T0, T7 vs. T0, and T15 vs. T0 respectively. Gene Ontology (GO) analyses of the DEGs from these comparisons, revealed that ORFV might provoke vigorous immune response of the host cells during the early stage of infection. Moreover, GO and network analysis showed that positive and negative regulative mechanisms of apoptosis were integrated in the host cells through up or down-regulating the expression level of DEGs involved in apoptotic pathways, in order to reach a homeostasis of oral mucosa tissues during the exposure to ORFV infection. In conclusion, our study for the first time describes the direct effects of ORFV on the global host gene expression of its host using high-throughput RNA sequencing, which provides a resource for future characterizing the interaction mechanism between the mammalian host and ORFV.
Highlights
Contagious ecthyma known as Orf, is a non-systemic cutaneous and debilitating disease with worldwide prevalence, causing serious financial losses in livestock production
The young small-tailed Han sheep were inoculated with Orf virus (ORFV), and we prepared the oral mucosa tissue samples (T0, T3, T7 and T15) on day 0, 3, 7 and 15 after ORFV infection, respectively
It indicated that ORFV infection could lead to comprehensive transcriptome changes of host cells from oral mucosa tissues
Summary
Contagious ecthyma known as Orf, is a non-systemic cutaneous and debilitating disease with worldwide prevalence, causing serious financial losses in livestock production. It is a zoonotic disease which mainly infects goats and sheep, but other various ruminants and mammals, like camel, deer, reindeer, muskox, serow, dog, cats and squirrel, have been reported to be infected [1,2]. Response to Orf virus infection articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. ABLife Inc. did not play any additional role study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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