Fig. 2: ZIKV infection decreases CYP17A1 at the protein level.

a Venn diagrams showing the numbers of identified proteins and the overlap of protein identification in the testes from ZIKV-infected mice (6  dpi) vs Mock-infected mice and ZIKV-infected mice (10 dpi) vs Mock-infected mice. b Enriched KEGG pathways based on the overlap of differential proteins described in (a) (FDR  <  0.05 and fold change > 2) are shown. c Heat map of altered proteins (FDR  <  0.05 and fold change > 2) related to steroid metabolic process and male germ cell proliferation in downregulated pathways in the testes of ZIKV-infected mice. d Representative immunofluorescence images of the testes of ZIKV-infected (days 0, 6, or 10) mice by staining for ZIKV-E and CYP17A1. DAPI staining indicates the nuclei. Scale bar, 50 μm. The ocular lens was set to 15×, with the magnification values corresponding to the objective lens used. e, f Protein levels of CYP17A1/CYP11A1/STAR/3β-HSD and ZIKV-E in the testes of ZIKV-infected (days 0, 6, or 10) mice (e), and CYP17A1 mRNA levels (f) were measured by Western blotting and qRT-PCR, respectively. g Representative immunofluorescence images of the testes of ZIKV-infected (days 0, 6, or 10) mice by staining for ZIKV-E and CYP11A1. DAPI staining indicates the nuclei. Scale bar, 50 μm. The ocular lens was set to 15×, with the magnification values corresponding to the objective lens used. h Representative immunofluorescence images of ZIKV-infected CYP17A1-A549 cells by staining for ZIKV-E and CYP17A1. DAPI staining indicates the nuclei. Scale bar, 25 μm. i, j Primary mLCs were infected with ZIKV at the indicated MOIs for 24 h (i) or were infected with ZIKV at an MOI of 1 for various time courses (j). The expression of endogenous CYP17A1/CYP11A1/STAR/3β-HSD was detected by Western blotting. k Primary mLCs were infected with ZIKV at the indicated MOIs for 24 h. Viral RNA (vRNA) and CYP17A1 mRNA were detected by qRT-PCR. The images in d, e, g–j are representative of three independent experiments. The data shown in f, k are the mean ± s.d (f: n = 5; k: n = 3); Statistical analysis of (f, k) was performed using one-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey’s multiple comparison test; ns, not significant. Source data are provided in the Source Data file.