Transcriptome analysis of responses to bluetongue virus infection in Aedes albopictus cells

Abstract

Background Bluetongue virus (BTV) causes a disease among wild and domesticated ruminants which is not contagious, but which is transmitted by biting midges of the Culicoides species. BTV can induce an intense cytopathic effect (CPE) in mammalian cells after infection, although Culicoides - or mosquito-derived cell cultures cause non-lytic infection with BTV without CPE. However, little is known about the transcriptome changes in Aedes albopictus cells infected with BTV. Methods Transcriptome sequencing was used to identify the expression pattern of mRNA transcripts in A. albopictus cells infected with BTV, given the absence of the Culicoides genome sequence. Bioinformatics analyses were performed to examine the biological functions of the differentially expressed genes. Subsequently, quantitative reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction was utilized to validate the sequencing data. Results In total, 51,850,205 raw reads were generated from the BTV infection group and 51,852,293 from the control group. A total of 5769 unigenes were common to both groups; only 779 unigenes existed exclusively in the infection group and 607 in the control group. In total, 380 differentially expressed genes were identified, 362 of which were up-regulated and 18 of which were down-regulated. Bioinformatics analyses revealed that the differentially expressed genes mainly participated in endocytosis, FoxO, MAPK, dorso-ventral axis formation, insulin resistance, Hippo, and JAK-STAT signaling pathways. Conclusion This study represents the first attempt to investigate transcriptome-wide dysregulation in A. albopictus cells infected with BTV. The understanding of BTV pathogenesis and virus–vector interaction will be improved by global transcriptome profiling. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12866-019-1498-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Transcriptome Analysis of Aedes aegypti Aag2 Cells in Response to Dengue Virus-2 Infection

“…The downregulated DEGs identified in this study, were only enriched in the Toll and Imd signaling pathways and not in the JAK-STAT signaling pathway and the RNAi pathway, which suggests that the Toll and Imd signaling pathways might differ from the JAK-STAT signaling pathway and the RNAi pathway. This result is similar to the results obtained after the infection of Aedes albopictus cells with Bluetongue virus [53,54]. Moreover, the Toll and Imd signaling pathways were inhibited in DENV-2infected Aag2 cells, and these findings were consistent with those from previous studies that showed that viruses such as DENV and CHIKV inhibit the Toll signaling pathway and thereby inhibit antiviral activity, which might reflect a "DENV downregulation trend" [55,56,57].…”

Transcriptome Analysis of Aedes aegypti Aag2 Cells in Response to Dengue Virus-2 Infection

“…This result is similar to the results obtained after the infection of Ae. albopictus Skuse cells with Bluetongue virus [46,47]. Moreover, the Toll and Imd signaling pathways were inhibited in DENV-2infected Aag2 cells, and these ndings were consistent with those from previous studies that showed that viruses such as DENV and CHIKV inhibit the Toll signaling pathway and thereby inhibit antiviral activity, which might re ect a "DENV downregulation trend" [48,49,50].…”

Transcriptome Analysis of Aedes aegypti Aag2 Cells in Response to Dengue Virus-2 Infection

“…This result is similar to the results obtained after the infection of Ae. albopictus Skuse cells with Bluetongue virus [46,47]. Moreover, the Toll and Imd signaling pathways were inhibited in DENV-2-infected Aag2 cells, and these ndings were consistent with those from previous studies that showed that viruses such as DENV and CHIKV inhibit the Toll signaling pathway and thereby inhibit antiviral activity, which might re ect a "DENV downregulation trend" [48,49,50].…”