The dynamic immune response of the liver and spleen in leopard coral grouper (Plectropomus leopardus) to Vibrio harveyi infection based on transcriptome analysis

Front Immunol. 2024 Oct 10:15:1457745. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1457745. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Leopard coral grouper (Plectropomus leopardus) is one of the most important cultured fish in the Pacific and Indian oceans. Vibrio harveyi is a serious pathogen causing serious skin ulceration and high mortality in P. leopardus. To gain more insight into the tissue-specific and dynamic immune regulation process of P. leopardus in response to V. harveyi infection, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to examine the transcriptome profiles in the spleen and liver at 0, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h post-infection. The upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were predominantly involved in the immune response in the spleen and liver at the early infection stage (6-12 h), and downregulated DEGs were mainly involved in metabolic processes in the liver at the early and middle infection stage (6-48 h). Moreover, an overview of the immune response of P. leopardus against V. harveyi was exhibited including innate and adaptive immune-related pathways. Afterwards, the results of WGCNA analysis in the spleen indicated that TAP2, IRF1, SOCS1, and CFLAR were the hub genes closely involved in immune regulation in the gene co-expression network. This study provides a global picture of V. harveyi-induced gene expression profiles of P. leopardus at the transcriptome level and uncovers a set of key immune pathways and genes closely linked to V. harveyi infection, which will lay a foundation for further study the immune regulation of bacterial diseases in P. leopardus.

Keywords: Plectropomus leopardus; Vibrio harveyi; dynamic immune regulation; tissue-specific immune response; transcriptome.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bass / genetics
  • Bass / immunology
  • Bass / microbiology
  • Fish Diseases* / genetics
  • Fish Diseases* / immunology
  • Fish Diseases* / microbiology
  • Fish Proteins / genetics
  • Fish Proteins / immunology
  • Gene Expression Profiling*
  • Immunity, Innate / genetics
  • Liver* / immunology
  • Liver* / metabolism
  • Liver* / microbiology
  • Spleen* / immunology
  • Spleen* / metabolism
  • Transcriptome*
  • Vibrio Infections* / immunology
  • Vibrio Infections* / veterinary
  • Vibrio* / immunology

Substances

  • Fish Proteins

Supplementary concepts

  • Vibrio harveyi

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was supported by the Key Research and Development Project of Shandong Province (2023LZGCQY001), STI2030 - Major Projects (2023ZD0405506), the Hainan Provincial Joint Project of Sanya Yazhou Bay Science and Technology City (320LH070), Hainan Province Science and Technology Special Fund (ZDYF2024XDNY278), the specific research fund of The Innovation Platform for Academicians of Hainan Province(YSPTZX202402), Academician Chen Songlin’s Workstation of Hainan Province(YSGZZ2023001) and Key Research and Development Project of Shandong Province (2021LZGC028,2023ZLYS02).