Next Generation Sequencing Facilitates Quantitative Analysis of Mock/MASCp36 infected mouse lung Transcriptomes

The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has brought an urgent need for animal models to study the pathogenicity of the virus. Herein, we generated and characterized a novel mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 strain named MASCp36 that causes acute respiratory symptoms and mortality in standard laboratory mice. Particularly, this model exhibits age and gender related skewed distribution of mortality akin to severe COVID-19, and the 50% lethal dose (LD50) of MASCp36 was ~100 PFU in aged, male BALB/c mice. To characterize the transcriptional response to infection of MASCp36 in BALB/c mice (different age and gender), RNA-Seq analysis were performed using lung homogenates collected at 1 and 4 dpi. To characterize the transcriptional response to infection of MASCp36 in BALB/c mice (different age and gender), RNA-Seq analysis were performed using lung homogenates collected at 1 and 4 dpi.