DF-1 cells prevent MG-HS infection through gga-miR-24-3p/RAP1B mediated decreased proliferation and increased apoptosis.

Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) is a major poultry pathogen that can induce Chronic Respiratory Disease (CRD) in chickens, causing serious economic losses in the poultry industry worldwide. Increasing evidence suggests that microRNAs (miRNAs) act as a vital role in resisting microbial pathogenesis and maintaining cellular mechanism. Our previous miRNAs sequencing data showed gga-miR-24-3p expression level was significantly increased in MG-infected chicken lungs. The aim of this study is to reveal the cellular mechanism behind the MG-HS infection. We found that gga-miR-24-3p was significantly upregulated and Ras-related protein-B (RAP1B) was downregulated in chicken fibroblast cells (DF-1) with MG infection. Dual luciferase reporting assay and rescue assay confirmed that RAP1B was the target gene of gga-miR-24-3p. Meanwhile, overexpressed gga-miR-24-3p increased the levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and significantly inhibited cell proliferation as well as promoted MG-infected DF-1 cell apoptosis, whereas inhibition of gga-miR-24-3p had the opposite effect. More importantly, the results of overexpression and knockdown of target gene RAP1B demonstrated that the presence of RAP1B promoted cell proliferation and it saved the reduced or increased cell proliferation caused by overexpression or inhibition of gga-miR-24-3p. Furthermore, the overexpression of gga-miR-24-3p could significantly inhibit the expression of MG-HS adhesion protein. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that DF-1 cells can resist MG-HS infection through gga-miR-24-3p/RAP1B mediated decreased proliferation and increased apoptosis, which provides a new mechanism of resistance to MG infection in vitro.