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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Infectious Diseases
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1463431

Transfer RNA-derived fragment production in calves challenged with Mycoplasma bovis or co-infected with bovine viral diarrhea virus and Mycoplasma bovis in several tissues and blood

Provisionally accepted
Anna K. Goldkamp Anna K. Goldkamp Randy G. Atchison Randy G. Atchison Shollie Falkenberg Shollie Falkenberg Rohana P. Dassanayake Rohana P. Dassanayake John D. Neill John D. Neill Eduardo Casas Eduardo Casas *
  • National Animal Disease Center, Agricultural Research Service (USDA), Ames, United States

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

    Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying immune response can allow informed decisions in drug or vaccine development, and aid in the identification of biomarkers to predict exposure or evaluate treatment efficacy. The objective of this study was to identify differentially expressed transfer RNA-derived fragments (tRFs) in calves challenged with Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis) or co-infected with M. bovis and bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV). Serum, white blood cells (WBC), liver, mesenteric lymph node (MLN), trachealbronchial lymph node (TBLN), spleen, and thymus were collected from Control (n = 2), M. bovis (MB; n = 3), and co-infected (Dual; n =3) animals, and small RNAs extracted for sequencing. An average of 94% of reads were derived from 5` halves and/or 5` tRFs in serum, liver, WBC, TBLN, spleen, MLN, and thymus. The expression of tRFs in lymphatic tissues (MLN, TBLN, Thymus, Spleen) were highly correlated with each other (r ≥ 0.82), but not with serum and WBC. A total of 25 and 65 differentially expressed tRFs were observed in liver and thymus, respectively. There were no differentially expressed tRFs found in other tissues analyzed. 19 thymus tRFs were differentially expressed in Dual compared to Control and MB, and the predicted targets of these tRFs were associated with MAPK signaling pathways and ERK1 and ERK2 cascades. The differentially expressed tRFs found in thymus and liver may underlie mechanisms of thymic depletion or liver inflammation previously observed in BVDV. Additional studies should be pursued to investigate differential expression of the predicted tRF targets.

    Keywords: tRNA, bovine, Mycoplasma bovis, bovine viral diarrhea virus, tRNA-derived fragment

    Received: 12 Jul 2024; Accepted: 28 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Goldkamp, Atchison, Falkenberg, Dassanayake, Neill and Casas. 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: Eduardo Casas, National Animal Disease Center, Agricultural Research Service (USDA), Ames, United States

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