Transcriptomic and proteomic analyses reveal new insights into the regulation of immune pathways during cyprinid herpesvirus 2 infection in vitro

Carassius auratus gibelio is susceptible to the herpesviral hematopoietic necrosis (HVHN) disease caused by cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV-2) infection during the breeding process. Nevertheless, the report on biological response of CyHV-2 with C. auratus gibelio was limited, especially in vitro. In this study, host gene expression profiling was mostly analyzed in caudal fin cells of Carassius auratus gibelio (GiCF) underlying CyHV-2 infection. Transcriptomics and proteomics were employed to study the differential expression gene and revealed the host genes involved in pathway during the CyHV-2 infection. Transcriptome analysis revealed that compared with the control group, there were 11 335 and 19 421 differentially expressed unigenes at 48 h and at 96 h, respectively. Furthermore, proteome analysis showed that there were a total of 9008 proteins, among which 169 proteins were differential expression in the 48 h group and 502 proteins in the 96 h group. Notably, 10 and 158 differentially co-expressed genes at mRNA and protein levels (cDEGs) were reliably quantified at 48 h and 96 h, respectively. Interestingly, significantly different expressed genes both in the transcriptome and the proteome were identified, including GNG7, Hsp90a, THBS1 and RRM2. The result suggested that PI3k-AKT pathway was activated, but the p53 signaling pathway was suppressed. The above result will lay the foundation for understanding the mechanisms of host defense virus invasion during CyHV-2 infection.