RNA-Seq Analysis of Spleen from Chicken and Japanese Quail infected with Lentogenic and Velogenic Newcastle Disease Virus

Newcastle disease (ND) affects a few hundred avian species including chicken, and the clinical outcome of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) infection ranges from mild to severe fatal disease depending on the NDV pathotype and the host species involved. Japanese quails serve as natural reservoirs of NDV and play important role in NDV epidemiology. While infection of chicken with velogenic NDV results in severe often fatal illness, the same infection in Japanese quails is results in in apparent infection. The molecular basis of this contrasting clinical outcomes of NDV infection is not yet known. We compared global gene expression in spleens of chicken and Japanese quails infected with a lentogenic or velogenic NDVs. We found contrasting regulation of key genes associated with NF-?B pathway and T-cell activation between chicken and Japanese quails. Our data suggests association of NDV resistance in Japanese quails to activation of NF-?B pathway and T cell proliferation. Overall design: RNA extracted from pools of spleens (n=6) from chickens or Japanese quail infected with Newcastle disease virus (LaSota or 2K3 strain) or mock-infected were analyzed by Illumina RNA-Seq and mapped to the Gallus gallus genome (Galgal4).新城疫（Newcastle disease, ND）可感染包括家鸡在内的数百种禽类，新城疫病毒（Newcastle disease virus, NDV）感染后的临床转归从轻症到重症乃至致死性疾病不等，具体取决于NDV的致病型以及宿主种类。日本鹌鹑是NDV的天然储存宿主，在NDV流行病学中发挥重要作用。速发型NDV感染家鸡会引发严重甚至致死性疾病，但同样的感染在日本鹌鹑中却不会表现出明显感染症状。目前尚不明确NDV感染引发这种截然不同临床转归的分子机制。本研究对感染弱发型（lentogenic）或速发型（velogenic）NDV的家鸡与日本鹌鹑的脾脏组织进行了全基因表达谱比较分析。研究发现，家鸡与日本鹌鹑之间，与NF-κB通路及T细胞活化相关的关键基因调控模式存在显著差异。本研究数据表明，日本鹌鹑对NDV的抗性与NF-κB通路活化及T细胞增殖存在关联。总实验设计：对来自感染新城疫病毒（LaSota株或2K3株）或模拟感染的家鸡与日本鹌鹑的6组混合脾脏样本（n=6）中提取的RNA进行Illumina RNA测序，并将测序序列比对至家鸡（Gallus gallus）参考基因组Galgal4。