Comprehensive analysis of ceRNA regulatory networks in the spleen of iridovirus-infected leopard coral grouper (Plectropomus leopardus)

Leopard coral grouper (Plectropomus leopardus) is among the most important economic marine fish in China. However, iridovirus infection has caused severe loss in aquaculture, creating an urgent need to discover the immune mechanism in response to viral infection. Thus, this study involved whole transcriptome analysis in spleen of iridovirus-infected leopard coral grouper using high-throughput sequencing. Assembly and annotation identified 1407 mRNAs, 75 miRNAs, 21 circRNAs, and 264 lncRNAs exhibited significantly different expressions in the spleen of iridovirus-infected leopard coral grouper. Further, the study identified two groups of competing endogenous RNA (ceRNAs) networks, as lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA and circRNA-miRNA-mRNA, that including five novel lncRNAs, four novel circRNAs, five hub miRNAs and 25 mRNAs. This study presents the first demonstration of the ceRNA crosstalk in spleen of iridovirus-infected leopard coral grouper, providing new molecular targets for investigating the antivirus mechanism of marine fish.