oyster-OsHV-1 RNA-seq

Ostreid Herpesvirus type 1 (OsHV-1) has become a serious infective agent of the Pacific oyster livestock worldwide. In particular, the OsHV-1 muVar subtype has been associated to severe mortality episodes concerning Crassostrea gigas in France and other regions of the world such as Australia and New Zealand. Factors triggering productive infections and virus interactions with susceptible and resistant bivalve hosts are not completely understood though some studies have been undertaken to explore the genes expressed in oysters after infection. We took advantage of an highly infected oyster sample to perform an in-vivo dual RNA-seq analysis. An extremely high sequencing coverage allowed us to explore in detail the Herpesvirus genome and transcriptome, and to identify viral-activated molecular pathways in Crassostrea gigas, thus expanding the current knowledge on the host-virus interactions.

牡蛎疱疹病毒1型（Ostreid Herpesvirus type 1, OsHV-1）现已成为全球太平洋牡蛎养殖种群的重大致病性病原。其中，OsHV-1 muVar亚型与法国、澳大利亚及新西兰等全球诸多地区的长牡蛎（Crassostrea gigas）严重死亡事件紧密相关。尽管已有多项研究针对感染后牡蛎的基因表达模式展开探索，但诱发病毒增殖性感染的关键因素，以及病毒与易感、抗性双壳类宿主的互作机制，目前仍未得到完全阐明。本研究借助一株高感染负荷的牡蛎样本，开展了体内双转录组测序（in-vivo dual RNA-seq）分析。极高的测序覆盖度使得研究团队得以详细解析该疱疹病毒的基因组与转录组，并鉴定出长牡蛎中被病毒激活的分子通路，进而拓展了当前学界对宿主-病毒互作机制的认知。