Raw data of "Comparative analysis of ducks liver gene expressions infected with virulent or attenuated DHAV-3 reveals divergent host responses to viruses of different virulence"

This study aimed to characterize the host responses to virulent and attenuated DHAV-3 strains by comparative transcriptomic and protein-level analyses of infected duck livers via RNA sequencing and ELISA. Infection with the virulent HB strain induced 2,355 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in duck livers at 48 hours post-infection (hpi), in contrast to only 322 DEGs triggered by the attenuated HB80 vaccine strain. Functional enrichment analysis revealed markedly divergent expression profiles between the two strains. The HB strain robustly activated immune-related signaling pathways, especially the Toll-like receptor (TLR) and RIG-I-like receptor (RLR) pathways, eliciting a strong type I interferon (IFN-I) response and substantial upregulation of chemokines. In comparison, the HB80 strain provoked a considerably milder immune reaction. Among the DEGs, 77 immune-related genes were identified, predominantly enriched in the IFN-I signaling pathway, suggesting their potential role in initiating an interferon storm and subsequent chemokine upregulation. Key pathway components including IFN-α2, RSAD2, RIG-I, MDA5, TBK1, and TLR7 were identified as potential regulatory targets during DHAV-3 infection and were consistently validated at both transcriptional and protein levels by RT-qPCR and ELISA, respectively.