Zhou Ruiling, Sun Kangshuai, Xie Xiao, Yin Fei, Galindo-Villegas Jorge
School of Marine Sciences, National Demonstration Center for Experimental (Aquaculture) Education, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China.
Department of Genomics, Faculty of Biosciences and Aquaculture, Nord University, Bodo, Norway.
Front Immunol. 2025 Jul 16;16:1636453. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1636453. eCollection 2025.
sp. (Scuticociliatida) has recently emerged as a significant parasitic threat in large yellow croaker () aquaculture. To elucidate the host response, we conducted an experimental infection followed by an integrated analysis combining immune enzymatic profiling and transcriptome sequencing. Antioxidant and immune enzyme activities, including SOD, CAT, and MDA in the skin, gill, and liver, and LYZ and Na/K-ATPase in the skin and gill were monitored from 0 to 72 hours post-infection (hpi). The results revealed tissue- and time-specific significant changes, indicating increased oxidative stress and activation of compensatory antioxidant and mucosal immune defenses. At the resolution phase of infection (72 hpi), dorsal skin tissue was subjected to RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), identifying 6,360 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), including 3,164 upregulated and 2,702 downregulated transcripts. GO and KEGG enrichment analyses revealed strong activation of key immune signaling pathways, such as , , , and , alongside metabolic reprogramming involving , , and . Inflammatory mediators associated with IL-17 signaling, including , and , together with chemokine-related effectors such as , and were significantly upregulated, suggesting strong mucosal inflammation and thrombocyte involvement, functionally analogous to the platelet-activation pathway in mammals. Notably, immunometabolic convergence was evidenced by co-upregulation of genes such as , , , , , and , reflecting the simultaneous activation of inflammatory and metabolic regulatory programs during host defense. Swiss-Prot annotations confirmed the conserved functional roles of these genes in cytokine signaling, energy mobilization, and tissue protection. qPCR validation of 12 representative genes showed strong concordance with the RNA-seq expression profile (=0.98). Together, these findings demonstrate that mounts a temporally coordinated immunometabolic response to sp., providing mechanistic insights into mucosal defense and offering candidate biomarkers for targeted disease management in marine aquaculture.
盾纤目（Scuticociliatida）的某种纤毛虫最近已成为大黄鱼养殖中的重大寄生虫威胁。为阐明宿主反应，我们进行了实验性感染，随后结合免疫酶谱分析和转录组测序进行综合分析。在感染后0至72小时（hpi）监测皮肤、鳃和肝脏中的抗氧化和免疫酶活性，包括超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）、过氧化氢酶（CAT）和丙二醛（MDA），以及皮肤和鳃中的溶菌酶（LYZ）和钠钾ATP酶（Na/K-ATPase）。结果显示出组织和时间特异性的显著变化，表明氧化应激增加以及代偿性抗氧化和黏膜免疫防御的激活。在感染的消退阶段（72 hpi），对背部皮肤组织进行RNA测序（RNA-seq），鉴定出6360个差异表达基因（DEG），包括3164个上调转录本和2702个下调转录本。基因本体（GO）和京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）富集分析显示关键免疫信号通路如[具体通路名称1]、[具体通路名称2]、[具体通路名称3]和[具体通路名称4]强烈激活，同时涉及[代谢途径名称1]、[代谢途径名称2]和[代谢途径名称3]的代谢重编程。与白细胞介素-17信号相关的炎症介质，包括[具体炎症介质名称1]、[具体炎症介质名称2]和[具体炎症介质名称3]，以及趋化因子相关效应分子如[具体趋化因子名称1]和[具体趋化因子名称2]显著上调，表明强烈的黏膜炎症和血小板参与，在功能上类似于哺乳动物中的血小板激活途径。值得注意的是，[具体基因名称1]、[具体基因名称2]、[具体基因名称3]、[具体基因名称4]、[具体基因名称5]和[具体基因名称6]等基因的共同上调证明了免疫代谢的趋同，反映了宿主防御过程中炎症和代谢调节程序的同时激活。瑞士蛋白质数据库（Swiss-Prot）注释证实了这些基因在细胞因子信号传导、能量动员和组织保护中的保守功能作用。对12个代表性基因的qPCR验证显示与RNA-seq表达谱高度一致（=0.98）。总之，这些发现表明大黄鱼对该纤毛虫产生了时间上协调的免疫代谢反应，为黏膜防御提供了机制性见解，并为海水养殖中的靶向疾病管理提供了候选生物标志物。
