Project description:Peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) belongs to the genus Morbillivirus that causes an acute and highly contagious disease in goats and sheep. Virus infection can trigger the change in the cellular microRNA (miRNA) expression profile, which play important post-transcriptional regulatory roles in gene expression and can greatly influence viral replication and pathogenesis. Here, we employed deep sequencing technology to determine cellular miRNAs expression profile in goat peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) infected with Nigeria 75/1 vaccine virus, a widely used vaccine strain for mass vaccination programs against Peste des petits ruminants (PPR). Expression analysis demonstrated that PPRV infection can elicit 316 significantly differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs including 103 known and 213 novel miRNAs candidates in infected PBMCs at 24 hours post-infection as compared with mock control. Target prediction and functional analysis of these DEmiRNAs revealed significant enrichment for several signaling pathways including TLR signaling pathways, PI3K-Akt, endocytosis, viral carcinogenesis, and JAK-STAT signaling pathways. This study provides a valuable basis for further investigation on the roles of miRNAs in PPRV replication and pathogenesis.