The dynamic immune response of the liver and spleen in leopard coral grouper () to infection based on transcriptome analysis.

Leopard coral grouper () is one of the most important cultured fish in the Pacific and Indian oceans. is a serious pathogen causing serious skin ulceration and high mortality in . To gain more insight into the tissue-specific and dynamic immune regulation process of in response to infection, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to examine the transcriptome profiles in the spleen and liver at 0, 6, 12, 24, 48, and 72 h post-infection. The upregulated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were predominantly involved in the immune response in the spleen and liver at the early infection stage (6-12 h), and downregulated DEGs were mainly involved in metabolic processes in the liver at the early and middle infection stage (6-48 h). Moreover, an overview of the immune response of against was exhibited including innate and adaptive immune-related pathways. Afterwards, the results of WGCNA analysis in the spleen indicated that TAP2, IRF1, SOCS1, and CFLAR were the hub genes closely involved in immune regulation in the gene co-expression network. This study provides a global picture of -induced gene expression profiles of at the transcriptome level and uncovers a set of key immune pathways and genes closely linked to infection, which will lay a foundation for further study the immune regulation of bacterial diseases in .