A novel approach to wildlife transcriptomics provides evidence of disease-mediated differential expression and changes to the microbiome of amphibian populations

Ranaviruses are responsible for a lethal, emerging infectious disease in amphibians and threaten their populations throughout the world. Despite this, little is known about how amphibian populations respond to ranaviral infection. In the United Kingdom, ranaviruses impact the common frog (Rana temporaria). Extensive public engagement in the study of ranaviruses in the UK has led to the formation of a unique system of field sites containing frog populations of known ranaviral disease history. Within this unique natural field system, we used RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) to compare the gene expression profiles of R. temporaria populations with a history of ranaviral disease and those without. We have applied a RNA read filtering protocol that incorporates Bloom filters, previously used in clinical settings, to limit the potential for contamination that comes with the use of RNA-Seq in non-laboratory systems. We have identified a suite of 407 transcripts that are differentially expressed betwee...蛙病毒（Ranavirus）可引发两栖动物致死性新发传染病，对全球范围内的两栖动物种群构成严重威胁。尽管如此，学界对两栖动物种群如何应对蛙病毒感染的机制仍知之甚少。在英国，蛙病毒会侵害普通蛙（Rana temporaria）。英国公众广泛参与蛙病毒相关研究，催生了一套独特的野外研究站点体系，这些站点内的蛙种群均有明确的蛙病毒感染病史记录。依托这套独特的野外自然研究体系，我们利用RNA测序（RNA-Seq）技术，对比了有蛙病毒感染病史与无感染病史的普通蛙种群的基因表达谱。我们采用了整合布隆过滤器（Bloom filter）的RNA读取过滤流程——该技术此前已应用于临床场景——以规避非实验室环境下开展RNA测序时可能出现的污染风险。我们已筛选出407个转录本，它们在两组种群间呈现差异表达……