Susceptibility and Permissivity of Zebrafish (<i>Danio rerio</i>) Larvae to Cypriniviruses
Cindy Streiff,
Bo He,
Léa Morvan,
Haiyan Zhang,
Natacha Delrez,
Mickael Fourrier,
Isabelle Manfroid,
Nicolás M. Suárez,
Stéphane Betoulle,
Andrew J. Davison,
Owen Donohoe,
Alain Vanderplasschen
Affiliations
Cindy Streiff
Immunology–Vaccinology, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals & Health (FARAH), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
Bo He
Immunology–Vaccinology, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals & Health (FARAH), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
Léa Morvan
Immunology–Vaccinology, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals & Health (FARAH), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
Haiyan Zhang
Immunology–Vaccinology, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals & Health (FARAH), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
Natacha Delrez
Immunology–Vaccinology, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals & Health (FARAH), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
Mickael Fourrier
Immunology–Vaccinology, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals & Health (FARAH), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
Isabelle Manfroid
Zebrafish Development and Disease Models Laboratory, GIGA-Molecular Biology of Diseases, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
Nicolás M. Suárez
MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow G61 1QH, UK
Stéphane Betoulle
UMR-I 02 Stress Environnementaux et BIOsurveillance des Milieux Aquatiques (SEBIO), UFR Sciences Exactes et Naturelles, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, CEDEX 2, 51687 Reims, France
Andrew J. Davison
MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow G61 1QH, UK
Owen Donohoe
Immunology–Vaccinology, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals & Health (FARAH), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
Alain Vanderplasschen
Immunology–Vaccinology, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals & Health (FARAH), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
The zebrafish (Danio rerio) represents an increasingly important model organism in virology. We evaluated its utility in the study of economically important viruses from the genus Cyprinivirus (anguillid herpesvirus 1, cyprinid herpesvirus 2 and cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV-3)). This revealed that zebrafish larvae were not susceptible to these viruses after immersion in contaminated water, but that infections could be established using artificial infection models in vitro (zebrafish cell lines) and in vivo (microinjection of larvae). However, infections were transient, with rapid viral clearance associated with apoptosis-like death of infected cells. Transcriptomic analysis of CyHV-3-infected larvae revealed upregulation of interferon-stimulated genes, in particular those encoding nucleic acid sensors, mediators of programmed cell death and related genes. It was notable that uncharacterized non-coding RNA genes and retrotransposons were also among those most upregulated. CRISPR/Cas9 knockout of the zebrafish gene encoding protein kinase R (PKR) and a related gene encoding a protein kinase containing Z-DNA binding domains (PKZ) had no impact on CyHV-3 clearance in larvae. Our study strongly supports the importance of innate immunity-virus interactions in the adaptation of cypriniviruses to their natural hosts. It also highlights the potential of the CyHV-3-zebrafish model, versus the CyHV-3-carp model, for study of these interactions.
