Transcriptional and translational expression profile of a white spot syndrome viral (WSSV) gene in different organs of infected shrimp

The occurrence of white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) infection causes high mortality and huge economic loss in shrimp aquaculture worldwide. The virus is known to infect only organs of ectodermal and mesodermal in origin. In this work, PCR, RT-PCR and Western blot analysis, for VP19, one of the four major structural proteins, were employed to study tissue distribution of WSSV in experimentally infected shrimp, Penaeus indicus. RT-PCR could detect the presence of virus at an earlier stage than PCR and Western blot analysis. In addition, differential expression of VP19 was observed in four different tissues (eyestalks, cephalothorax, gills and peeled tail muscle) and the results demonstrated a higher level of transcription and expression of VP19 in tail muscle, which indicated that infectivity was significantly higher in tail tissue than in the other three tissues, in both intramuscular and oral routes of infection.