Transcriptomic analysis reveals differentially expressed genes and a unique apoptosis pathway in channel catfish ovary cells after infection with the channel catfish virus

Farman Ullah Dawar; Xianqin Hu; Lijuan Zhao; Xingxing Dong; Yang Xiong; Meng Zhou; Rishen Liang; V Sarath Babu; Jun Li; Jie Mei; Li Lin

doi:10.1016/j.fsi.2017.09.070

Transcriptomic analysis reveals differentially expressed genes and a unique apoptosis pathway in channel catfish ovary cells after infection with the channel catfish virus

Fish Shellfish Immunol. 2017 Dec:71:58-68. doi: 10.1016/j.fsi.2017.09.070. Epub 2017 Sep 29.

Authors

Farman Ullah Dawar¹, Xianqin Hu², Lijuan Zhao³, Xingxing Dong⁴, Yang Xiong⁴, Meng Zhou³, Rishen Liang³, V Sarath Babu³, Jun Li⁵, Jie Mei⁶, Li Lin⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Aquatic Animal Medicine, College of Fisheries, Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Pond Aquaculture, Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China; Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Aquatic Animal Diseases and Waterfowl Breeding, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Waterfowl Healthy Breeding, College of Animal Sciences and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510225, China.
² Department of Aquatic Animal Medicine, College of Fisheries, Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Pond Aquaculture, Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China; School of Animal Sciences and Nutritional Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430023, China.
³ Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Aquatic Animal Diseases and Waterfowl Breeding, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Waterfowl Healthy Breeding, College of Animal Sciences and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510225, China.
⁴ Department of Aquatic Animal Medicine, College of Fisheries, Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Pond Aquaculture, Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China.
⁵ School of Biological Sciences, Lake Superior State University, Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783, USA; Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong, 266071, China.
⁶ Department of Aquatic Animal Medicine, College of Fisheries, Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Pond Aquaculture, Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China. Electronic address: jmei@mail.hzau.edu.cn.
⁷ Department of Aquatic Animal Medicine, College of Fisheries, Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Pond Aquaculture, Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China; Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Aquatic Animal Diseases and Waterfowl Breeding, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Waterfowl Healthy Breeding, College of Animal Sciences and Technology, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510225, China; Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production Processes, National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong, 266071, China; Agro-biological Gene Research Center, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510640, China. Electronic address: linli@mail.hzau.edu.cn.

PMID: 28970047
DOI: 10.1016/j.fsi.2017.09.070

Abstract

The channel catfish virus (CCV) can cause lethal hemorrhagic infection in juvenile channel catfish, thereby resulting in a huge economic loss to the fish industry. The genome of the CCV has been fully sequenced, and its prevalence is well documented. However, less is known about the molecular mechanisms and pathogenesis of the CCV. Herein, the channel catfish ovary cells (CCO) were infected with CCV and their transcriptomic sketches were analyzed using an RNA sequencing technique. In total, 72,686,438 clean reads were obtained from 73,231,128 sequence reads, which were further grouped into 747,168 contigs. These contigs were assembled into 49,119 unigenes, of which 20,912 and 18,333 unigenes were found in Nr and SwissProt databases and matched 15,911 and 14,625 distinctive proteins, respectively. From these, 3641 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), comprising 260 up-regulated and 3381 down-regulated genes, were found compared with the control (non-infected) cells. For verification, 16 DEGs were analyzed using qRT-PCR. The analysis of the DEGs and their related cellular signaling pathways revealed a substantial number of DEGs that were involved in the apoptosis pathway induced by CCV infection. The apoptosis pathways were further elucidated using standard apoptosis assays. The results showed that CCV could induce extrinsic apoptosis pathway (instead of a mitochondrial intrinsic apoptosis pathway) in CCO cells. This study helps our understanding of the pathogenesis of CCV and contributes to the prevention of CCV infection in channel catfish.

Keywords: Apoptosis; CCV; Channel catfish; Channel catfish ovary cells; DEGs; Transcriptome.

MeSH terms

Animals
Apoptosis / immunology
Cells, Cultured
Female
Fish Proteins / genetics*
Fish Proteins / immunology
Gene Expression Profiling / veterinary
Gene Expression*
Herpesviridae Infections / immunology*
Ictaluridae / genetics*
Ictaluridae / immunology*
Ictalurivirus / physiology
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction

Substances

Fish Proteins