Temporal dynamics of the bat wing transcriptome: Insight into gene-expression changes that enable protection against pathogen

ABSTRACT

Skin acts as a mechanical barrier between the body and its surrounding environment and plays an important role in resistance to pathogens. However, we still know little regarding skin responses to physiological changes, particularly with regard to responses against potential pathogens. We herein executed RNA-seq on the wing of the Rhinolophus ferrumequinum to assess gene-expression variations at four physiological stages: pre-hibernation, hibernation (early-hibernation and late-hibernation), and post-hibernation, as well as the gene-expression patterns of infected and uninfected bats with the Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd). Our results showed that a greater number of differentially expressed genes between the more disparate physiological stages. Functional enrichment analysis showed that the down-regulated response pathways in hibernating bats included phosphorus metabolism and immune response, indicating metabolic suppression and decreased whole immune function. We also found up-regulated genes in post-hibernating bats that included C-type lectin receptor signalling, Toll-like receptor signalling pathway, and cell adhesion, suggesting that the immune response and skin integrity of the wing were improved after bats emerged from their hibernation and that this facilitated clearing Pd from the integument. Additionally, we found that the genes involved in cytokine or chemokine activity were up-regulated in late-hibernation compared to early-hibernation and that FOSB regulation of immune cell activation was differentially expressed in bats infected with Pd during late-hibernation, implying that the host’s innate immune function was enhanced during late-hibernation so as to resist pathogenic infection. Our findings highlight the concept that maintenance of intrinsic immunity provides protection against pathogenic infections in highly resistant bats.

KEYWORDS:

• Wing transcriptome
• immune defence
• Pseudogymnoascus destructans
• Rhinolophus ferrumequinum
• hibernation

Acknowledgements

We thank Jun Li for her help in data analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All raw sequencing reads generated were deposited in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) under submission accession number SRP337443. The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available in the Figshare repository (available at: https://figshare.com/s/eb8363e704079baa68fe)

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2022.2156185

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 32171525, 31961123001 and 31770403).