Change of Gut Microbiota in PRRSV-Resistant Pigs and PRRSV-Susceptible Pigs from Tongcheng Pigs and Large White Pigs Crossed Population upon PRRSV Infection

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) is one of the serious infectious diseases that threatens the swine industry. Increasing evidence shows that gut microbiota plays an important role in regulating host immune responses to PRRS virus (PRRSV). The aim of this study was to investigate gut microbiota difference between PRRSV-resistant pigs and PRRSV-suspectable pigs derived from a Tongcheng pigs and Large White pigs crossed population. PRRSV infection induces an increase in the abundance and diversity of gut microbiota. Correlation analysis showed that 36 genera were correlated with viral loads or weight gain after PRRSV infection. Prevotellaceae-NK3B31-group, Christensenellaceae-R7-group, and Parabacteroides were highly correlated with both viral load and weight gain. Notably, the diversity and abundance of beneficial bacteria such as Prevotellaceae-NK3B31-group was high in resistant pigs, and the diversity and abundance of pathogenic bacteria such as Campylobacter and Desulfovibrio were high in susceptible pigs. Gut microbiota were significantly associated with immune function and growth performance, suggesting that these genera might be related to viremia, clinical symptoms, and disease resistance. Altogether, this study revealed the correlation of gut microbiota with PRRSV infection and gut microbiota interventions may provide an effective prevention against PRRSV infection

Identification of Differentially Expressed Non-coding RNA in Porcine Alveolar Macrophages from Tongcheng and Large White Pigs Responded to PRRSV

Abstract Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is one of the most ruinous diseases in pig production. Our previous work showed that Tongcheng pigs (TC) were less susceptible to PRRS virus (PRRSV) than Large White (LW) pigs. To elucidate the difference in PRRSV resistance between the two breeds, small RNA-seq and ribo-zero RNA-seq were used to identify differentially expressed non-coding RNAs (including miRNAs and lincRNAs) responded to PRRSV in porcine alveolar macrophages (PAMs) from TC and LW pigs. Totally, 250 known mature miRNAs were detected. For LW pigs, there were 44 down-regulated and 67 up-regulated miRNAs in infection group; while for TC pigs, 12 down-regulated and 23 up-regulated miRNAs in TC infection group were identified. The target genes of the common differentially expressed miRNAs (DEmiRNAs) in these two breeds were enriched in immune-related processes, including apoptosis process, inflammatory response, T cell receptor signaling pathway and so on. In addition, 5 shared DEmiRNAs (miR-181, miR-1343, miR-296-3p, miR-199a-3p and miR-34c) were predicted to target PRRSV receptors, of which miR-199a-3p was validated to inhibit the expression of CD151. Interestingly, miR-378 and miR-10a-5p, which could inhibit PRRSV replication, displayed higher expression level in TC control group than that in LW control group. Contrarily, miR-145-5p and miR-328, which were specifically down-regulated in LW pigs, could target inhibitory immunoreceptors and may involve in immunosuppression caused by PRRSV. This indicates that DEmiRNAs are involved in the regulation of the immunosuppression and immune escape of the two breeds. Furthermore, we identified 616 lincRNA transcripts, of which 48 and 30 lincRNAs were differentially expressed in LW and TC pigs, respectively. LincRNA TCONS_00125566 may play an important role in the entire regulatory network, and was predicted to regulate the expression of immune-related genes through binding with miR-1343 competitively. In conclusion, this study provides an important resource for further revealing the interaction between host and virus, which will specify a new direction for anti-PRRSV research

Direct Observation of Group‑V Dopant Substitutional Defects in CdTe Single Crystals

Point defect chemistry strongly affects the fundamental properties of materials and has a decisive impact on device performance. The Group-V dopant is prominent acceptor species with high hole concentration in CdTe; however, its local atomic structure is still not clear owing to difficulties in definitive measurements and discrepancies between experimental observations and theoretical models. Herein, we report on direct observation of the local structure for the As dopant in CdTe single crystals by the X-ray fluorescence holography (XFH) technique, which is a powerful tool to visualize three-dimensional atomic configurations around a specific element. The XFH result shows the As substituting on both Cd (AsCd) and Te (AsTe) sites. Although AsTe has been well known as a shallow acceptor, AsCd has not attracted much attention and been discussed so far. Our results provide new insights into point defects by expanding the experimental XFH study in combination with theoretical first-principles studies in II–VI semiconductors