Histone H3K27 acetylation mediated by KAT8 maintains antiviral immunity in shrimp trained with inactivated WSSV
The phenomenon of trained immunity, which facilitates vaccine development for disease control, has been identified in shrimp; however, the mechanism remains elusive. In the present study, we found that histone H3K27 acetylation (H3K27ac) mediated by the lysine acetyltransferase KAT8 plays an important role in preventing white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infection in the shrimp Marsupenaeus japonicus. We then successfully established a model of trained immunity via the use of UV-inactivated WSSV to explore the underlying mechanism(s) in shrimp. In UV-WSSV-trained shrimp, the glycolysis and tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle metabolic pathways were enhanced and acetyl-CoA concentrations were increased. As the acetyl group donor, acetyl-CoA promotes KAT8 activity to increase H3K27 acetylation. H3K27ac is deposited at the promoter region of the transcription factor Dorsal to facilitate its expression and then Dorsal promotes the expression of an interferon-like cytokine, Vago5, and antimicrobial peptides that act against WSSV infection. H3K27ac is also deposited at the promoter region of hexokinase 2 and isocitrate dehydrogenase, which positively regulates glycolysis and the TCA cycle in a feedforward manner. Our results reveal a novel mechanism of trained immunity induced by UV-WSSV in shrimp and provide a theoretical basis for the development of antiviral vaccines for disease control in shrimp aquaculture. Overall design: Chromatin immunoprecipitation DNA-sequencing (ChIP-seq) for histone modification H3K27ac in hemocytes from UV-WSSV-trained shrimp, PBS-trained shrimp were used as controls