Fig. 2: ZIKV infection perturbs the phospholipid placental profile.

a Simplified schematic overview of the phospholipid (PL) metabolism pathways. Fatty acid (FA), phosphatidic acid (PA), cytidine diphosphate diacylglycerol (CDP-DAG). Lipid droplet (LD). Fatty acid synthase (FASN) catalyzes FA de novo lipid synthesis. The transporter FAT/CD36 assists in FA uptake from the exogenous environment. The ER-resident diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1), an essential enzyme for LD biogenesis, catalyzes the final step in TG biosynthesis. b–g PLs were extracted from mock or ZIKV-infected placenta explants 5 dpi and subjected to LC-MS/MS analysis. Quantification of PL species was achieved by comparison of the peak area of individual species relative to their class-specific internal standards. Values are normalized based on the protein level for each sample. The relative abundance of PL species is calculated as the sum of subspecies within different subgroups. b Phosphatidylcholine (PC), (c) phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), (d) phosphatidylinositol (PI), (e) phosphatidylserine (PS). f–g Relative abundance of differentially altered phospholipid subspecies from PC (f) and PE (g). Boxplot: boxplot medians (center lines), interquartile ranges (box ranges), whisker ranges. h Total RNA extracted from matched mock- and ZIKV-infected first trimester placentas at 5 dpi. The mRNA expression levels were determined by qRT-PCR. Mock-infected placenta (blue) and ZIKV-infected (red). Results are presented as mean values ± SEM of first trimester placentas from five independent donors. P values are computed using paired two-tailed Student’s t test. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.