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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Viral Immunology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1439465
This article is part of the Research Topic Immunovirology in Aquatic Animals View all 11 articles

Transcriptomic response of lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) head kidney to viral mimic, with a focus on the interferon regulatory factor family

Provisionally accepted

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The economic importance of lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) is increasing, but several aspects of its immune responses are not well understood. To discover genes and mechanisms involved in the lumpfish antiviral response, fish (n=9 per group, i.e., for qPCR) were intraperitoneally injected with either the viral mimic polyinosinic polycytidylic acid [poly(I:C)] or phosphate buffered saline (PBS; vehicle control), and head kidneys were sampled 24 hours post-injection (hpi) for transcriptomic analyses. RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) (n=5 per group; adjusted p-value < 0.01) identified 4499 upregulated and 3952 downregulated transcripts in the poly(I:C)-injected compared to the PBS-injected fish. Eighteen genes identified as differentially expressed by RNA-Seq were included in a qPCR study that confirmed the upregulation of genes encoding proteins with antiviral immune response functions (e.g., rsad2) and the downregulation of genes (e.g., jarid2b) with potential cellular process functions. In addition, transcript expression levels of 12 members of the IRF family [7 of which were identified as poly(I:C) responsive in this RNA-Seq study] were analyzed using qPCR. Levels of irf1a, irf1b, irf2, irf3, irf4b, irf7, irf8, irf9 and irf10 were significantly higher, and levels of irf4a and irf5 were significantly lower in the poly(I:C)injected compared to the PBS-injected fish. This research and associated new genomic resources enhance our understanding of the genes and molecular mechanisms underlying the lumpfish response to viral mimic stimulation and help identify possible therapeutic targets and biomarkers for viral infections in this species.

    Keywords: antiviral, Lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus L.), IRF, RNA seq, qPCR

    Received: 28 May 2024; Accepted: 08 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Emam, Kumar, Eslamloo, Caballero Solares, Hall, Xue, Paradis, Gendron, Santander and Rise. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mohamed Emam, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Canada

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