Distribution and Potential Involvement of PTEN in the Innate Immune Response during Viral Infections in Cherry Valley Ducks

Wende Chen¹Shaojie Han²Rong Li¹Shuo Li¹Zhi Cao¹Qing Pan¹Gen Li^1*

• ¹Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
• ²Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

The phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) is one of the most frequently mutated tumor suppressor genes, known to antagonize the PI3K/AKT pathway and play a role in host innate and adaptive immunity. In this study, the full-length cDNA of duck PTEN (duPTEN) was first cloned from the spleen of healthy Cherry Valley ducks. Multiple amino acid sequence alignments revealed that duPTEN has a high degree of structural conservation, and the phylogenetic tree demonstrated that the duPTEN shares the closest relationship with the Gallus and Meleagris within the Birds branch, with a similarity of 100%. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis showed that duPTEN mRNA is broadly expressed in healthy Cherry Valley duck tissues, with the highest expression levels observed in the brain. Following Duck Tembusu virus and Duck Plague Virus infections at 1-, 3-and 5-days post infection, a significant upregulation of duPTEN mRNA expression was detected in the spleen and lung, while a downregulation was observed in the brain. However, duPTEN was consistently downregulated both in the spleen, lung, and brain following Novel duck reovirus infection. This research represents the first study to explore the cloning, tissue distribution, and antiviral immune responses of duPTEN. The results suggest that duPTEN is involved in the host immune response to multiple viruses. These findings highlight the importance of duPTEN in regulating innate immune responses and influencing viral infections, laying a foundation for further research on duck innate immunity and the antiviral mechanisms of duPTEN.