Transcriptome of Edwardsiella anguillarum in vivo and in vitro revealed two-component system, ABC transporter and flagellar assembly are three pathways pathogenic to European eel (Anguilla anguilla)

• Published in: Microbial pathogenesis Vol. 153; p. 104801
• Main Authors: Zhai, Shaowei, Xiao, YiQun, Tang, YiJun, Wan, Qijuan, Guo, Songlin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2021
• Subjects: Anguilla anguilla, liver; Edwardsiella anguillarum; qPCR; Transcriptome sequencing; Transcriptome sequencing; qPCR; Edwardsiella anguillarum; Anguilla anguilla, liver
• ISSN: 0882-4010; 1096-1208
• DOI: 10.1016/j.micpath.2021.104801

Edwardsiella anguillarum is one of the common bacterial pathogens for the cultivated eels in China. The aim of this study was to reveal the cause of E. anguillarum pathogenic to European eel (Anguilla anguilla) from the perspective of the transcriptome. In this study, we first prepared E. anguillarum cultured in vitro and analysed the whole transcriptome after extracting the total RNA. Then, eels were i.p injected with E. anguillarum, and total RNA were extracted from the liver of European eels 48 h after the infection. After sequencing the transcriptome, we obtained average 1.97 × 108 clean reads cultured in vitro and 1.36 × 105 clean reads located in vivo after annotating all reads into the genome of E. anguillarum. The whole transcriptome showed, compared to the E. anguillarum cultured in vitro, 503 significantly up and 657 significantly down-regulated different expressed genes (DEGs) were observed. KEGG analysis showed that 38 DEGs of Two-Component System, 41 DEGs of ABC transporter, and 10 DEGs flagellar assembly pathways were highly upregulated in E. anguillarum located in vivo. Then, we designed primers to analyse the up-regulated DEGs through qRT-PCR and confirmed some up-regulated DEGs. The results of this study provide important reference for the further study of pathogen-host interaction between E. anguillarum and European eel. •Comparative transcriptome of Edwardsiella anguillarum in vivo and in vitro was first reported.•European eels infected by E. anguillarum caused severe symptom in the liver.•The 503 up DEGs of E. anguillarum in vivo involved mainly in 3 KEGG pathways.•The 657 down DEGs of E. anguillarum in vivo improved the adaptation of pathogen to host.