Zeng Shenzheng, Zhou Renjun, Bao Shicheng, Li Xuanting, Deng Zhixuan, Hou Dongwei, Weng Shaoping, He Jianguo, Huang Zhijian
State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Southern Marine Sciences and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
South China Sea Resource Exploitation and Protection Collaborative Innovation Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Front Genet. 2020 Feb 18;11:71. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2020.00071. eCollection 2020.
The pacific white shrimp, , with the largest shrimp industry production in the world, is currently threatened by a severe disease, white feces syndrome (WFS), which cause devastating losses globally, while its causal agents remain largely unknown. Herein, compared to the Control shrimp by metagenomic analysis, we firstly investigated that the altered functions of intestinal microbial community in WFS shrimp were the enrichment of bacterial chemotaxis and flagellar assembly pathways, hinting at a potential role of pathogenic bacteria for growth and development, which might be related to WFS occurrence. Single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing was to further identify the gene structure and gene regulation for more clues in WFS aetiology. Totally 50,049 high quality transcripts were obtained, capturing 39,995 previously mapped and 10,054 newly detected transcripts, which were annotated to 30,554 genes. A total of 158 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were characterized in WFS shrimp. These DEGs were strongly associated with various immune related genes that regulated the expression of multiple antimicrobial peptides (e.g., antilipopolysaccharide factors, penaeidins, and crustin), which were further experimentally validated using quantitative PCR on transcript level. Collectively, multigene biomarkers were identified to be closely associated with WFS, especially those functional alterations in microbial community and the upregulated immune related gene with antibacterial activities. Our finding not only inspired our cogitation on WFS aetiology from both microbial and host immune response perspectives with combined metagenomic and full-length transcriptome sequencing, but also provided valuable information for enhancing shrimp aquaculture.
太平洋白虾是世界上虾产业产量最高的虾类，目前正受到一种严重疾病——白便综合征（WFS）的威胁，这种疾病在全球造成了毁灭性损失，但其致病因子在很大程度上仍不为人知。在此，通过宏基因组分析，与对照虾相比，我们首先研究了WFS虾肠道微生物群落功能的改变是细菌趋化性和鞭毛组装途径的富集，这暗示了病原菌在生长发育中的潜在作用，这可能与WFS的发生有关。单分子实时（SMRT）测序旨在进一步鉴定基因结构和基因调控，以获取更多关于WFS病因的线索。总共获得了50,049个高质量转录本，其中包括39,995个先前已定位的转录本和10,054个新检测到的转录本，这些转录本被注释到30,554个基因。在WFS虾中总共鉴定出158个差异表达基因（DEG）。这些DEG与各种免疫相关基因密切相关，这些基因调控多种抗菌肽（如抗脂多糖因子、对虾素和甲壳素）的表达，并在转录水平上通过定量PCR进一步进行了实验验证。总的来说，多基因生物标志物被鉴定与WFS密切相关，特别是微生物群落的功能改变以及具有抗菌活性的免疫相关基因的上调。我们的发现不仅通过宏基因组和全长转录组测序从微生物和宿主免疫反应两个角度激发了我们对WFS病因的思考，也为加强对虾养殖提供了有价值的信息。
