The phosphoproteomic responses of duck (Cairna moschata) to classical/novel duck reovirus infections in the spleen tissue

Duck reovirus (DRV) is a fatal member of the genus Orthoreovirus in the family Reoviridae. The disease caused by DRV leads to huge economic losses to the duck industry. Post-translational modification is an efficient strategy to enhance the immune responses to virus infection. However, the roles of protein phosphorylation in the responses of ducklings to Classic/Novel DRV (C/NDRV) infections are largely unknown. Using a high-resolution LC–MS/MS integrated to highly sensitive immune-affinity antibody method, phosphoproteomes of Cairna moschata spleen tissues under the C/NDRV infections were analyzed, producing a total of 8,504 phosphorylation sites on 2,853 proteins. After normalization with proteomic data, 392 sites on 288 proteins and 484 sites on 342 proteins were significantly changed under the C/NDRV infections, respectively. To characterize the differentially phosphorylated proteins (DPPs), a systematic bioinformatics analyses including Gene Ontology annotation, domain annotation, subcellular localization, and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway annotation were performed. Two important serine protease system-related proteins, coagulation factor X and fibrinogen α-chain, were identified as phosphorylated proteins, suggesting an involvement of blood coagulation under the C/NDRV infections. Furthermore, 16 proteins involving the intracellular signaling pathways of pattern-recognition receptors were identified as phosphorylated proteins. Changes in the phosphorylation levels of MyD88, NF-κB, RIP1, MDA5 and IRF7 suggested a crucial role of protein phosphorylation in host immune responses of C. moschata. Our study provides new insights into the responses of ducklings to the C/NDRV infections at PTM level.