MicroRNA expression profile of Chicken liver in different stages during Histomonas meleagridis infection
Background: Histomonas meleagridis is an anaerobic, intercellular parasite, which infects gallinaceous birds such as turkeys and chickens. In recent years, the reemergence of Histomoniasis has caused serious economic losses as drugs to treat the disease have been banned. At present, research of H. meleagridis focuses on virulence, gene expression analysis, and the innate immunity of the host. However, there are no study on the differentially expressed miRNAs (DEMs) associated with the liver induced by H. meleagridis. In this research, high-throughput sequencing was used to analyze the expression profile of liver miRNA at 10 and 15 days post-infection (DPI) in chickens infected with Chinese JSYZ-F strain H. meleagridis. Results: Compared with the uninfected control, 120 and 118 DEMs were found in the liver of infected chickens at 10 DPI and 15 DPI, respectively, of which 74 DEMs were shared at two-time points. Differentially expressed miRNAs were classified into three types according to the time of infection: L1, 45 miRNAs differentially expressed only at 10 DPI, were predicted to target 1646 genes; L2, 43 miRNAs differentially expressed only at 15 DPI, were predicted to target 2257 genes; L3, 75 miRNAs differentially expressed at both 10 DPI and 15 DPI, were predicted to target 1623 genes. A total of 89, 87 and 41 significantly enriched GO terms (p<0.05) were identified at L1, L2 and L3, respectively. The KEGG pathway analysis of differentially expressed miRNA target genes were shown that 3, 4 and 5 significantly enriched KEGG pathway (p<0.05) were identified at L1, L2 and L3, respectively. Conclusion: This article suggested that liver miRNA expression was dynamically altered by H. meleagridis and host and showed that the expression pattern of the L1 class DEMs were more favourable for controlling the development of the inflammatory response, whereas the L2 class DEMs were more favourable for enhancing the inflammatory response. Inflammation-associated miRNA expression patterns were consistent with the liver inflammatory process after artificial infection. The results of the study laid the foundation for an in-depth analysis of the pathogenic mechanism of H. meleagridis from the perspective of host miRNAs. Overall design: liver miRNA profiles of 10 and 15 days old infect/control chicken