Proteomic Profiling Skin Mucus of European Eel Anguilla anguilla Infected with Anguillid Herpesvirus

Anguillid herpesvirus 1 (AngHV) is an important viral pathogen affecting eel. This study was designed to investigate the potential molecular mechanisms and immune response elicited at the protein levels in the skin mucus of AngHV-infected Anguilla anguilla. Tandem mass tag (TMT)-labelling proteomics with the liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used for performing quantitative identification of the proteins. In addition, the quantitative protein amount was detected by parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) analysis. A total of 3486 proteins were identified, of which 2935 were quantified. When a protein fold change was greater than 1.3 or less than 0.76, it indicated a differentially expressed protein (DEP). Overall, 187 up-regulated proteins and 126 down-regulated proteins were detected, and most of the DEPs were enriched in the CAMs pathway, intestinal immune pathway, herpes simplex virus 1 infection pathway, phagosome pathway and p53 signaling pathway. The results of the DEPs detected by PRM were highly consistent with the results of the TMT-labelled quantitative proteomic analysis. The findings of this study provide an important research basis for further understanding the pathogenesis of AngHV.

Automated summary

This study investigated the molecular mechanisms and immune response in the skin mucus of Anguilla anguilla infected with Anguillid herpesvirus 1 (AngHV) at the protein levels. TMT-labelled proteomics with LC-MS/MS was used for quantitative identification of proteins. The results showed significant changes in protein expression, and many differentially expressed proteins were found to be enriched in various pathways, providing important insights into the pathogenesis of AngHV.