Transcriptome analysis of Macrobrachium rosenbergii hemocytes in response to Staphylococcus aureus infection

The aquaculture industry has suffered significant financial losses as a result of disease outbreaks. In particular, disease outbreaks have become a major problem that can seriously affect the sustainable development of the Macrobrachium rosenbergii aquaculture industry. It is crucial to determine the defense mechanism of the host after pathogenic invasion in order to provide effective defense measures after disease outbreaks. Shrimp, like other invertebrates, primarily depend on their innate immune systems to defend against pathogens, and recognize and resist pathogens through humoral and cellular immune responses. In this investigation, we used RNA-seq technology to investigate the transcriptome of hemocytes from M. rosenbergii induced by Staphylococcus aureus. Our main targets were immune pathways and genes related to innate immunity. RNA-seq identified 209,069 and 204,775 unigenes in the control and experimental groups, respectively. In addition, we identified 547 and 1734 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) following S. aureus challenge after 6 and 12 h (h), respectively. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that the DEGs were significantly enriched in several biological signalling pathways, including NOD-like receptor, PI3K-Akt, Toll and Imd, IL-17, TGF-beta, RIG-I-like receptor, cAMP, apoptosis, and C-type lectin receptor. Sixteen DEGs were chosen at random for qPCR verification; these results concurred with those from sequencing. Our findings revealed that immune-related genes play an important role in antibacterial activities and have specific functions for gram-positive bacteria. These results provide more data for the prevention of M. rosenbergii diseases and offer a basis for the better prevention of diseases.