rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) infected rabbit liver proteome

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) belongs to the family Caliciviridae, genus Lagovirus and is used in Australia as a biocontrol tool to keep the population of european rabbits low. This virus has a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome that encodes structural (capsid) and non-structural proteins. Due to the lack of an established cell culture system for this virus, some of the non-structural proteins are yet awaiting characterisation and their function is unknown. This work attempted to characterise the process of RHDV infection and identify pathways that alterate in RHDV-infected rabbit liver at the proteome level. Young rabbits were infected with RHDV2 (genotype GI.1bP-GI.2) and humanely killed 24 hours post-infection. 25% liver homogenates were prepared in RNAlater buffer and stored at -20C. Uninfected rabbit liver samples served as a control. Samples from three RHDV2-infected animals (K375, K376, K378) and three uninfected animals (K3, K14, K12) were used in this study.