Comparative transcriptome analysis of Peromyscus leucopus and C3H mice infected with the Lyme disease pathogen

Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Cellular and Infection Microbiology

Caroline Nitirahardjo¹  Helen Piontkivska²  Alex Zelikovsky³  Igor Mandric³  Alhussien M. Gaber⁴  Artem S. Rogovskyy⁴  Andrew E. Hillhouse⁵  David W. Threadgill⁶ 

[1] Department of Biological Sciences, and School of Biomedical Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, United States;Department of Biological Sciences, and School of Biomedical Sciences, Kent State University, Kent, OH, United States;Brain Health Research Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH, United States;Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, United States;Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States;Texas A&M Institute for Genomics Sciences and Society, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States;Texas A&M Institute for Genomics Sciences and Society, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States;Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, Texas A&M University Health Science Center, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, United States;

关键词: Lyme borreliosis;    Borreliella burgdorferi;    Borrelia;    Peromyscus leucopus;    C3H mice;    differentially expressed genes;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fcimb.2023.1115350

 received in 2022-12-03, accepted in 2023-03-23,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Lyme disease (LD), the most prevalent tick-borne disease of humans in the Northern Hemisphere, is caused by the spirochetal bacterium of Borreliella burgdorferi (Bb) sensu lato complex. In nature, Bb spirochetes are continuously transmitted between Ixodes ticks and mammalian or avian reservoir hosts. Peromyscus leucopus mice are considered the primary mammalian reservoir of Bb in the United States. Earlier studies demonstrated that experimentally infected P. leucopus mice do not develop disease. In contrast, C3H mice, a widely used laboratory strain of Mus musculus in the LD field, develop severe Lyme arthritis. To date, the exact tolerance mechanism of P. leucopus mice to Bb-induced infection remains unknown. To address this knowledge gap, the present study has compared spleen transcriptomes of P. leucopus and C3H/HeJ mice infected with Bb strain 297 with those of their respective uninfected controls. Overall, the data showed that the spleen transcriptome of Bb-infected P. leucopus mice was much more quiescent compared to that of the infected C3H mice. To date, the current investigation is one of the few that have examined the transcriptome response of natural reservoir hosts to Borreliella infection. Although the experimental design of this study significantly differed from those of two previous investigations, the collective results of the current and published studies have consistently demonstrated very limited transcriptomic responses of different reservoir hosts to the persistent infection of LD pathogens.ImportanceThe bacterium Borreliella burgdorferi (Bb) causes Lyme disease, which is one of the emerging and highly debilitating human diseases in countries of the Northern Hemisphere. In nature, Bb spirochetes are maintained between hard ticks of Ixodes spp. and mammals or birds. In the United States, the white-footed mouse, Peromyscus leucopus, is one of the main Bb reservoirs. In contrast to humans and laboratory mice (e.g., C3H mice), white-footed mice rarely develop clinical signs (disease) despite being (persistently) infected with Bb. How the white-footed mouse tolerates Bb infection is the question that the present study has attempted to address. Comparisons of genetic responses between Bb-infected and uninfected mice demonstrated that, during a long-term Bb infection, C3H mice reacted much stronger, whereas P. leucopus mice were relatively unresponsive.

【 授权许可】

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Copyright © 2023 Gaber, Mandric, Nitirahardjo, Piontkivska, Hillhouse, Threadgill, Zelikovsky and Rogovskyy