Zhi Lifeng, Xu Xiangdong, Zeng Yang, Qin Wenquan, Li Ganghua, Zhao Junming, Zhang Runfeng, Rong Guang
Hubei Key Laboratory of Edible Wild Plants Conservation and Utilization, College of Life Sciences, Hubei Normal University, Huangshi 435002, China.
Tropical Crops Genetic Resources Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Danzhou 571700, China.
Biology (Basel). 2025 Jul 25;14(8):938. doi: 10.3390/biology14080938.
Marek's disease (MD), induced by the highly contagious Marek's disease virus (MDV), remains a significant challenge to global poultry health despite extensive vaccination efforts. This study employed integrated transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses to investigate liver responses in naturally MDV-infected Wenchang chickens during late infection stages. RNA sequencing identified 959 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the infected and uninfected groups. Functional enrichment analysis demonstrated that these DEGs were primarily associated with canonical pathways related to metabolism and cellular processes, including lipid, carbohydrate, and amino acid metabolism, as well as the p53 signaling pathway, cell cycle, and apoptosis. Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS) detected 561 differentially expressed metabolites (DEMs), showing near-significant enrichment ( = 0.069) in phenylalanine metabolism. Integrated analysis of transcriptomics and metabolomics data highlighted that critical gene-metabolite pairs such as SGPL1-palmitaldehyde-sphinganine-1-phosphate and ME1-NADP+-malic acid potentially mediate functional crosstalk between sphingolipid metabolism and cellular redox homeostasis during viral oncogenesis. This comprehensive mapping of regulatory networks provides insights into host-virus interactions during MDV pathogenesis, offering potential applications in immunomodulation approaches, targeted therapeutic strategies, and vaccine adjuvant development.
马立克氏病（MD）由具有高度传染性的马立克氏病病毒（MDV）引起，尽管进行了广泛的疫苗接种工作，但它仍然是全球家禽健康面临的重大挑战。本研究采用综合转录组学和代谢组学分析方法，研究了自然感染MDV的文昌鸡在感染后期肝脏的反应。RNA测序确定了感染组和未感染组之间有959个差异表达基因（DEG）。功能富集分析表明，这些DEG主要与代谢和细胞过程相关的经典途径有关，包括脂质、碳水化合物和氨基酸代谢，以及p53信号通路、细胞周期和细胞凋亡。超高效液相色谱与四极杆飞行时间质谱联用（UPLC-Q-TOF-MS）检测到561种差异表达代谢物（DEM），在苯丙氨酸代谢中显示出接近显著的富集（ = 0.069）。转录组学和代谢组学数据的综合分析突出表明，关键的基因-代谢物对，如SGPL1-棕榈醛-鞘氨醇-1-磷酸和ME1-NADP+-苹果酸，可能在病毒致癌过程中介导鞘脂代谢与细胞氧化还原稳态之间的功能串扰。这种调控网络的全面图谱为MDV发病机制中的宿主-病毒相互作用提供了见解，为免疫调节方法、靶向治疗策略和疫苗佐剂开发提供了潜在应用。
