Taube Konrad, Noreikiene Kristina, Kahar Siim, Gross Riho, Ozerov Mikhail, Vasemägi Anti
Chair of Aquaculture, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Kreutzwaldi 46a, 51014 Tartu, Estonia.
Institute of Biosciences, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University Vilnius, Lithuania.
Int J Parasitol Parasites Wildl. 2023 Sep 29;22:146-154. doi: 10.1016/j.ijppaw.2023.09.009. eCollection 2023 Dec.
Determining the physiological effects of parasites and characterizing genes involved in host responses to infections are essential to improving our understanding of host-parasite interactions and their ecological and evolutionary consequences. This task, however, is complicated by high diversity and complex life histories of many parasite species. The use of transcriptomics in the context of wild-caught specimens can help ameliorate this by providing both qualitative and quantitative information on gene expression patterns in response to parasites in specific host organs and tissues. Here, we evaluated the physiological impact of the widespread parasite, the pike tapeworm ( on its second intermediate host, the Eurasian perch (). We used an RNAseq approach to analyse gene expression in the liver, the target organ of plerocercoids, and spleen which is one of the main immune organs in teleost fishes. We compared perch collected from multiple lakes consisting of individuals with (n = 8) and without (n = 6) plerocercoids in the liver. Results revealed a small number of differentially expressed genes (DEGs, adjusted p-value ≤0.05) in both spleen (n = 22) and liver (n = 10). DEGs in spleen consisted of mostly upregulated immune related genes (e.g., , , ), while those in the liver were often linked to metabolic functions (e.g., , ). However, Gene Ontology (GO) analysis showed lack of functional enrichment among DEGs. This study demonstrates that Eurasian perch displays a subtle response at a gene expression level to plerocercoid infection. Given that plerocercoids are low-metabolic activity transmission stages, our results suggest that moderate plerocercoid infection most likely does not provoke an extensive host immune response and have relatively low physiological costs for the host. Our findings illustrate that not all conspicuous infections have severe effects on host gene regulation.
确定寄生虫的生理效应并鉴定参与宿主对感染反应的基因，对于增进我们对宿主 - 寄生虫相互作用及其生态和进化后果的理解至关重要。然而，许多寄生虫种类的高度多样性和复杂生活史使这项任务变得复杂。在野生捕获标本的背景下使用转录组学可以通过提供关于特定宿主器官和组织中对寄生虫反应的基因表达模式的定性和定量信息来帮助改善这种情况。在这里，我们评估了广泛存在的寄生虫——梭鲈绦虫（）对其第二中间宿主欧亚鲈（）的生理影响。我们使用RNA测序方法分析了肝脏（绦虫裂头蚴的靶器官）和脾脏（硬骨鱼类的主要免疫器官之一）中的基因表达。我们比较了从多个湖泊收集的鲈鱼，这些湖泊中的个体肝脏中有（n = 8）和没有（n = 6）绦虫裂头蚴。结果显示，脾脏（n = 22）和肝脏（n = 10）中均有少量差异表达基因（DEG，校正p值≤0.05）。脾脏中的差异表达基因大多是上调的免疫相关基因（例如， ， ），而肝脏中的差异表达基因通常与代谢功能相关（例如， ， ）。然而，基因本体（GO）分析表明差异表达基因中缺乏功能富集。这项研究表明，欧亚鲈在基因表达水平上对绦虫裂头蚴感染表现出微妙的反应。鉴于绦虫裂头蚴是低代谢活性的传播阶段，我们的结果表明，适度的绦虫裂头蚴感染最有可能不会引发广泛的宿主免疫反应，并且对宿主的生理成本相对较低。我们的研究结果表明，并非所有明显的感染都会对宿主基因调控产生严重影响。
