White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is a severe pathogen of mud crab Scylla paramamosain (S. paramamosain). Hemolymph, containing three types of hemocytes, is the key immunoregulatory tool of mud crab in response to pathogens. Herein, the metabonomics and transcriptomics analysis of hemocytes were adopted to investigate the immune response of S. paramamosain challenged to WSSV. We established the metabolic and transcriptional profiles of mud crab hemocytes with different treatments, including the control group (WT), WSSV early infected group (WSSV-6 h) and WSSV later infected group (WSSV-72 h). The results showed that 68 metabolites were dysregulated both in WSSV-infected mud crab of early stage and later stage, while 4452 genes were up-regulated and 9746 genes were down-regulated in WSSV-6 h, and 2016 genes were up-regulated and 6229 genes were down-regulated compared in WSSV-72 h. We found that several pathways were dysregulated at both metabolic and transcriptional levels, including ABC transporters, purine metabolism, taurine and hypotaurine metabolism in the WSSV early infected group, cysteine metabolism, methionine metabolism and biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids in the WSSV later infected group. In this context, through the integration of metabolomics and transcriptomics, our study provided a more comprehensive understanding of the biological process in mud crab against viral invasion.

白斑综合症病毒（WSSV）是青蟹的严重病原体青蟹paramamosain（S. paramamosain）。血淋巴包含三种类型的血细胞，是泥蟹应对病原体的关键免疫调节工具。在此，通过血细胞的代谢组学和转录组学分析来研究S. paramamosain的免疫反应向 WSSV 发起挑战。我们建立了不同处理的泥蟹血细胞的代谢和转录谱，包括对照组（WT）、WSSV早期感染组（WSSV-6 h）和WSSV晚期感染组（WSSV-72 h）。结果表明，WSSV-6 h感染的泥蟹有68个代谢产物失调，4452个基因上调，9746个基因下调，2016个基因上调和与 WSSV-72 h 相比，6229 个基因被下调。我们发现几种途径在代谢和转录水平上都出现失调，包括 WSSV 早期感染组中的 ABC 转运蛋白、嘌呤代谢、牛磺酸和亚牛磺酸代谢、半胱氨酸代谢、WSSV 后感染组的蛋氨酸代谢和不饱和脂肪酸的生物合成。在此背景下，通过代谢组学和转录组学的整合，我们的研究提供了对泥蟹抵抗病毒入侵的生物学过程的更全面的了解。