Transcriptome of Peromyscus leucopus lungs infected with SARS-CoV-2

Peromyscus leucopus is a reservoir for numerous zoonoses and one of the most abundant mammals in North America. Since they live near humans we are interested in the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 infection in this animal model from a zoonoses standpoint. The experimental design for the first trial involves using adult male and female P. leucopus LL stock. Animals were dosed with nasal inhalation of either tissue culture medium (DMEM) alone (controls) or alpha variant, WA1 strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus. We dosed 8 animals with a virus (titer 2x104) and 6 with DMEM alone. Animals were euthanized at either 3 or 6 days post-infection. For a second trial, P. leucopus animals were 1-3 years old and we had 3 groups: control animals with nasal inhalation of media, control animals with nasal inhalation of the heat-treated virus, and infected animals. Each group has 4 animals euthanized on 3- or 6-days post-infection (DPI). Lung tissue was used for RNA isolation and further sequencing to obtain 40 x 106 PE150 reads.

Methods
Lung RNA was isolated using Direct-zol Miniprep kit according to instructions. Lung RNA was sequenced using Illumina technology. The stranded mRNA library was normalized, multiplexed, and sequences on the NovaSeq6000 instrument at the UC Irvine genomic High Throughput Facility. We used paired-end chemistry and 150 cycles to achieve 40 million reads per sample. 

The project and the description of the samples are described under the following NCBI BioProjects: PRJNA1026365 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA1026365). Manuscript in preparation; URL pending.