ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Bacteria and Host
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1669654
Transcriptomic and proteomic profiling of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae responses to iron starvation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, China
- 2Beijing University of Agriculture, Changping, China
- 3Qinghai University, Xining, China
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Background: Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (APP) is the causative agent of porcine contagious pleuropneumonia, which remains a major pathogen endangering the swine industry. However, the mechanisms underlying its colonization and pathogenesis in pig remain largely unknown. Methods: An integrated analysis combining transcriptomic and proteomic profiling was employed to detect genetic and protein changes in APP under iron starvation. Results: In total, 458 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) from transcriptome and 532 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) from proteome were identified. The comparative analysis showed that 137 differentially expressed genes/proteins were shared between DEGs and DEPs, with the majority exhibiting consistent regulatory changes at both transcription and protein levels. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that the downregulated genes were predominantly associated with generation of precursor metabolites and energy (45/105, 42.86%), primary metabolic process (29/105, 27.62%), ion binding (20/105, 19.05%) and metal cluster binding (18/105, 17.14%), corresponding to pathways involved in primary metabolites and energy biosynthesis, and cellular respiration. Conversely, the upregulated genes were primarily enriched in iron transport (11/30, 36.67%) and iron binding (9/30, 30%), which corresponded to the iron starvation conditions. The expression changes of iron utilization systems including TonB-ExbB-ExbD and some TonB-dependent receptors by qRT-PCR were consistent with the results in both transcriptome and proteome analysis. Conclusion: This study provided a global perspective on the response mechanisms employed by APP to iron starvation, characterized by suppressing electron transport and energy metabolism pathways and upregulating the pathways associated with the TonB-ExbB-ExbD energy transduction system for iron acquisition.
Keywords: Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, Transcriptome, Proteome, Iron starvation, virulence factor, adaptation
Received: 20 Jul 2025; Accepted: 08 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cui, Chen, Feng, Guo, Shao and Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yifang Cui, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, China
Fuzhou Xu, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Beijing, China
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