Whole-transcriptome analysis of bovine leukemia virus-infected cows with contrasting proviral load levels.

Bovine leukaemia virus (BLV) is a retrovirus that infects cattle, causing Bovine Enzootic Leukosis, a chronic disease characterized by the proliferation of infected B cells. BLV proviral load (PVL) is a key determinant of disease progression and transmission risk. Cattle can exhibit distinct phenotypes of low PVL (LPVL) or high PVL (HPVL), which remain stable throughout their lifetime. Differential expression analysis performed in edgeR identified 1,908 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between HPVL and LPVL animals, including 774 downregulated (DReg) and 1134 upregulated (UReg) genes. We performed a whole-transcriptome analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from BLV-infected Argentinian Holstein cows. The study compared two contrasting phenotypes: samples from three animals with a high proviral load (HPVL) were analyzed against those from four animals with a low proviral load (LPVL).