title: Analysis of miRNA expression profiling in mouse spleen affected by acute Toxoplasma gondii infection.
abstract: Toxoplasma gondii is a worldwide prevalent pathogen that infects most of the warm-blood vertebrates. To investigate the regulation network of splenic miRNAs altered by acute infection with T. gondii, we herein investigated the changes of miRNA profile in mouse spleen via next generation sequencing and bioinformatics analysis. A total of 379 miRNAs was identified, 131 miRNAs of them were differentially expressed (including 97 upregulated and 34 downregulated miRNAs). 48 differentially expressed miRNAs had validated targets in the miRWalk2.0 database. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis revealed that the validated targets of differently expressed miRNAs were significantly enriched in gene transcription regulation. It suggested that T. gondii can modulate host gene expression through targeting to trans-regulation factors. The genes involved in apoptosis or anti-apoptosis were both targeted by differentially expressed miRNAs. The change of power balance between the miRNAs targeting host apoptosis genes and those regulating host anti-apoptosis genes contributes to the fate of host apoptosis process. Twelve pathways were significantly enriched in KEGG analysis with most of them being cancer related, including pathways in cancer, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, axon guidance, MAPK signaling pathway, focal adhesion, chronic myeloid leukemia, renal cell carcinoma, prostate cancer, glioma, regulation of actin cytoskeleton, and Wnt signaling pathway. Our study showed a changed miRNA regulation network in mouse spleen infected by T. gondii. These findings will be helpful for better understanding of miRNA regulation network in host-T. gondii interaction, revealing the relationship among T. gondii infection, gene regulation, apoptosis and cancer process alterations in infected spleen.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730046, PR China.
authors.forename: Jun-Jun
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730046, PR China; College of Veterinary Medicine, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, Hunan Province 410128, PR China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730046, PR China.
authors.forename: Jin-Lei
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730046, PR China; College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province 510642, PR China. Electronic address: xuminjun@caas.cn.
authors.forename: Min-Jun
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730046, PR China; Jiangsu Co-innovation Center for the Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Yangzhou University College of Veterinary Medicine, Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province 225009, PR China. Electronic address: xingquanzhu1@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Xing-Quan
authors.initials: XQ
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing / Q000379:methods; D051379:Mice; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA / Q000379:methods; D013154:Spleen / Q000469:parasitology*; D014123:Toxoplasmosis / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs
keywords: MicroRNA (miRNA); Mouse; Spleen; Toxoplasma gondii