Transcriptome Analysis of Rabies virus-infected Mice Salivary Glands

Rabies is a fatal zoonotic disease posing a threat to the public health globally. Rabies virus (RABV) is excreted in the saliva of infected animals, and is primarily transmitted through bite contact. Salivary glands play an important role for virus propagation. However, the significance of salivary glands is less studied in RABV pathogenic mechanisms. To identify functionally important genes in the salivary glands, we employed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to establish and analyze mRNA expression profiles in parotid tissue infected with two RABV strains, CVS-11 and PB4. We map the transcriptome changes in response to RABV infection in parotid tissue for the first time. This work provides new clues to the study of RABV-affected salivary gland function and RABV transmission mechanisms in parotid tissue. And the salivary gland-enriched transcripts could be potential targets of interest for rabies disease control. Overall design: 36 mice were assigned to three groups (mock, CVS-11- and PB4-infected groups), each group contained 12 mice. Within each group, 4 mice constituted one biological replicate. We employed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to establish and analyze mRNA expression profiles in uninfected mice parotid tissue (mock group) and parotid tissue infected with two RABV strains, CVS-11 and PB4.