Transcriptome profiling of lung immune responses potentially related to acute respiratory distress syndrome in forest musk deer

BACKGROUND: Forest musk deer is an endangered species globally. The death of captive forest musk deer can be caused by certain respiratory system diseases. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a huge threat to the life of forest muck deer that breed in our department. METHODS: Lung histopathologic analysis was conducted by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining. The lung gene changes triggered by ARDS were examined by RNA sequencing and related bioinformatics analysis in forest musk deer. The potential functions of unigenes were investigated by NR, SwissProt KOG, GO, and KEGG annotation analyses. Vital biological processes or pathways in ARDS were examined by GO and KEGG enrichment analyses. RESULTS: A total of 3265 unigenes were differentially expressed (|log(2)fold-change|> 2 and adjusted P value < 0.01) in lung tissues of 3 forest musk deer with ARDS compared with normal lung tissues of the non-ARDS group. These differentially expressed unigenes (DEGs) played crucial roles in immunity and defense responses to pathogens. Moreover, we identified the DEGs related to one or more of the following biological processes: lung development, immunity, and bacterial/viral/fungal infection. And six DEGs that might be involved in lung injury caused by immune dysregulation or viral/fungal infection were identified. CONCLUSION: ARDS-mediated lung gene alterations were identified in forest musk deer. Moreover, multiple genes involved in lung development and lung defense responses to bacteria/viruses/fungi in ARDS were filtered out in forest musk deer. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-022-08917-7.