Abstract
The white-footed deermouse Peromyscus leucopus, a long-lived rodent, is a key reservoir for agents of several zoonoses, including Lyme disease. While persistently infected, this deermouse is without apparent disability or diminished fitness. For a model for inflammation elicited by various pathogens, the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was used to compare genome-wide transcription in blood by P. leucopus, Mus musculus and Rattus norvegicus and adjusted for white cell concentrations. Deermice were distinguished from the mice and rats by LPS response profiles consistent with non-classical monocytes and alternatively-activated macrophages. LPS-treated P. leucopus, in contrast to mice and rats, also displayed little transcription of interferon-gamma and lower magnitude fold-changes in type 1 interferon-stimulated genes. This was associated with comparatively reduced transcription of endogenous retrovirus sequences and cytoplasmic pattern recognition receptors in the deermice. The results reveal a mechanism for infection tolerance in this species and perhaps other animal reservoirs for agents of human disease.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
This is version 3 of the manuscript and numbered as R2 for revision 2. This version has corrected typos, some rewritten sentences that were awkward in structure, clarifications about some methods, some expanded legends to provide more detail about what is in the figures, and modification of Figures 1 and 2 to provide better access for individuals who have color blindness. These changes were in response to recommendations by two outside, anonymous reviewers. There are no other changes to the figures or tables in the article itself or in the supplementary materials.