Laboratory zebrafish are commonly infected with the intracellular, brain‐infecting microsporidian parasite Pseudoloma neurophilia . Chronic P. neurophilia infections induce inflammation in meninges, brain and spinal cord, and have been suggested to affect neural functions since parasite clusters reside inside neurons. However, underlying neural and immunological mechanisms associated with infection have not been explored. Utilizing RNA‐sequencing analysis, we found that P. neurophilia infection upregulated 175 and downregulated 45 genes in the zebrafish brain, compared to uninfected controls. Four biological pathways were enriched by the parasite, all of which were associated with immune function. In addition, 14 gene ontology (GO) terms were enriched, eight of which were associated with immune responses and five with circadian rhythm. Surprisingly, no differentially expressed genes or enriched pathways were specific for nervous system function. Upregulated immune‐related genes indicate that the host generally show a pro‐inflammatory immune response to infection. On the other hand, we found a general downregulation of immune response genes associated with anti‐pathogen functions, suggesting an immune evasion strategy by the parasite. The results reported here provide important information on host–parasite interaction and highlight possible pathways for complex effects of parasite infections on zebrafish phenotypes.

中文翻译：

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假性假神经瘤感染对斑马鱼脑转录组的影响（达尼奥·里奥）。

实验室斑马鱼通常感染细胞内，脑部感染的微孢子虫寄生虫伪神经瘤。慢性体育嗜血杆菌感染可引起脑膜，大脑和脊髓发炎，并且由于寄生虫簇位于神经元内部，因此已被认为会影响神经功能。但是，尚未探索与感染相关的潜在神经和免疫学机制。利用RNA序列分析，我们发现了神经性疟原虫与未感染的对照组相比，斑马鱼脑部感染中上调了175个基因，下调了45个基因。寄生虫丰富了四个生物学途径，所有这些途径均与免疫功能有关。此外，丰富了14个基因本体论（GO）术语，其中八个与免疫反应相关，五个与昼夜节律有关。令人惊讶的是，没有差异表达的基因或丰富的途径对神经系统功能具有特异性。上调的免疫相关基因表明宿主通常表现出对感染的促炎免疫反应。另一方面，我们发现与抗病原体功能相关的免疫应答基因普遍下调，提示该寄生虫采取了逃避免疫的策略。