Effects of Glutamine Starvation on SHVV Replication by Quantitative Proteomics Analysis

Snakehead vesiculovirus (SHVV), a strain of negative-stranded RNA viruses extracted from sick snakehead fish (Ophicephalus striatus), may pose a threat to the health of snakehead fish. Previous research has proved that the replication of SHVV can be significantly inhibited by glutamine starvation. To study how glutamine starvation inhibits SHVV replication, channel catfish ovary (CCO) cells with SHVV cultivated in the glutamine-free medium or the complete medium were used to investigate the differentially expressed proteins (DEPs). The results showed that 124 up-regulated and 246 down-regulated proteins were involved in many viral replication physiological processes, such as autophagy, post-translational modifications machinery, and functional pathways, including the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and mTOR signaling pathway. Furthermore, a few proteins, such as Akt and Hsp90, which have been confirmed to be involved in the replication of RNA viruses, were also significantly differentially expressed. Taken together, our study demonstrated that glutamine starvation affects various functional pathways and the expression of some key proteins related to RNA viral replication, which will benefit future studies on the replication mechanisms of SHVV and the prevention of SHVV infection.