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Dryad

Differentially expressed genes in the blood, spleen, and liver of Peromyscus leucopus and Mus musculus with or without treatment with lipopolysaccharide

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Mar 07, 2021 version files 293.22 KB

Abstract

Animals that are competent reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens commonly suffer little morbidity from the infections. To investigate mechanisms of this tolerance of infection, we used single-dose lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as an experimental model of inflammation and compared the responses by two rodents: Peromyscus leucopus, white-footed deermouse and reservoir for agents of Lyme disease and other zoonoses, and the house mouse Mus musculus. Four hours after injection with LPS or saline, blood, spleen and liver samples were collected and subjected to RNA-seq, metabolomics, and specific RT-qPCR. Differential expression analysis was at gene, pathway, and network levels. LPS-treated deermice showed similar signs of sickness as exposed mice and had similar increases in corticosterone levels and expression of interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor, IL-1beta, and C-reactive protein. By network analysis the M. musculus response to LPS was characterized as cytokine-associated, while the P. leucopus response was dominated by neutrophil activity terms. In addition, dichotomies in expression of arginase 1 and nitric oxide synthase 2 and of IL-10 and IL-12 were consistent with type M1 macrophage responses in mice and type M2 in deermice.

This dataset comprises the list of differentially expressed genes from the RNA-seq analysis of 20 P. leucopus (10 females and 10 males) and 20 M. musculus (10 females and 10 males) that were inoculated intraperitoneally with 10 mg/kg of E. coli lipopolysaccharide (6 females and 6 males of each species) or with saline alone (4 females or 4 males of each species) at time 0 and then the animals were euthanized at 4 hours. The tissues were then processed for RNA extraction, cDNA library preparations, and sequencing and then analysis as described under Methods.