Figure 1.

Schematic illustration of the sampling time points for bacterial challenge experiment. After the intraperitoneal injection of Vibrio harveyi, the blood and spleen were sampled at 6, 16, 48, 72, and 96 h, which were named as In6, In16, In48, In72, and In96, respectively. Correspondingly, the control groups were sampled at 6 and 96 h after the intraperitoneal injection of PBS in order to prevent the stresses caused by time, which were named as C6 and C96, respectively. The five groups with bacterial infection were further divided into early-infection (In6 and In16) and late-infection (In48, In72, and In96) groups.