The first glimpse in the transcriptomic changes induced by the PaV1 virus infection on the gut of Caribbean Spiny lobster, Panulirus argus (Latreille, 1804) (Decapoda: Achelata: Palinuridae)

The Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus (Latreille, 1804), supports an important fishery in the Caribbean region. Currently, this species is being affected by a deadly, pathogenic virus known as Panulirus argus Virus 1, the only known pathogenic virus for this species. At the last stage of infection, PaV1 provokes systemic affectations to its host, including structural injuries to the gastrointestinal tract (e.g. hepatopancreas and the gut), which becomes highly compromised as infection progresses. Since gut is a key organ for the physiological stability of lobsters, in this work we compared the transcriptomic changes in the gut of juvenile specimens of Panulirus argus naturally infected with PaV1. We performed a RNA-Seq analysis, which produced a total of 485 million raw reads. After cleaning, reads were de novo assembled into 68,842 transcripts and 50,257 unigenes. The length of unigenes ranged from 201 bp to 28,717 bp, with an N50 length of 2,079, and a GC content of 40.61%. In the differential gene expression analysis, we identified a total of 3,405 no redundant differential transcripts, being 1,920 up- and 1,485 down-regulated. We found alterations in transcripts encoding for proteins involved in transcriptional regulation, splicing, postraductional regulation, protein signalling, transmembrane transport, cytoskeletal regulation, proteolysis, among others. This is the first insight into the transcriptomic regulation of PaV1-P. argus interaction. The information generated can help to figure out previously unknown molecular mechanisms that may intervene during PaV1 infection.