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Inapparent maternal ZIKV infection impacts fetal brain development and postnatal behavior [BulkSeq]

GSE302948 Mus musculus (mouse) RNA-seq (gene expression) 48 samples Submitted 2025/12/30 Platform GPL21103
At a glance

RNA-seq (gene expression) · mouse · 48 samples

What it is
RNA-seq (gene expression)Gene activity measured by sequencing. The summary does not mention single-cell work, so this is most likely bulk: one average per sample, the usual starting point for comparing groups.
Organism
Mus musculus (mouse)
Samples
48 samples: 8 conditions, mostly with about 6 replicates eachGroups are read from the sample names, not from the paper. Check the list below.
Data you can get
A processed table (series matrix) and supplementary files from NCBI; the raw sequencing reads from ENA. Which of these hold counts depends on the study, so check the file list.
Paper
Inapparent maternal ZIKV infection impacts fetal brain development and postnatal behaviorPLoS pathogens · 2026
Summary (written by the submitters)
Zika virus (ZIKV) has emerged as a significant public health concern due to its association with severe neurological outcomes in infants, including microcephaly and congenital Zika syndrome (CZS). However, while the majority of ZIKV infections during pregnancy do not result in CZS, the potential long-term neurological effects of mild or inapparent maternal infections remain poorly understood.
Read the full summary ↓
In this study, we adapted a model of maternal ZIKV infection in human STAT2 knock-in (hSTAT2) mice to investigate the effects of ZIKV infection during mid-gestation, aiming to mirror typical asymptomatic infections as they occur in humans. We found that maternal ZIKV infection at mid-gestation leads to vertical transmission without causing overt developmental deficits or clinical signs in dams or offspring. Despite the absence of immediate clinical signs, transcriptomic analyses revealed significant changes in the developing fetal brain, particularly in genes related to synaptic function and neuronal development. These molecular alterations were associated with increased synaptic density in the hippocampus and heightened susceptibility to chemically induced seizures in offspring, suggesting subtle yet significant long-term neurological consequences. Using motion sequencing (MoSeq), an unsupervised machine learning approach that profiles naturalistic motor behavior, we also identified persistent, sex-biased alterations in the content and structure of spontaneous behavior in offspring exposed to maternal ZIKV infection. Our findings highlight that even mild maternal ZIKV infections can disrupt fetal neurodevelopment, underscoring the need for enhanced monitoring and public health measures for children exposed to ZIKV in utero but who do not experience severe developmental alterations at birth. Additionally, our study provides a valuable animal model and comprehensive, cell type-specific transcriptomic datasets that will facilitate new lines of investigation into the impact of inapparent maternal ZIKV infections on fetal and childhood brain development.
Published in
Inapparent maternal ZIKV infection impacts fetal brain development and postnatal behavior
Chou TW, McCourt M, Marmut E et al. · PLoS pathogens 2026 · PMID 41525323 · doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1013850
This dataset
Open GSE302948 in finder → Find more mouse RNA-seq datasets →
Download · which file do I need?

Direct links to NCBI and ENA, no account and no request form. Pick by what you want to do: take the small processed table to look, the supplementary files to re-analyse, or the original raw data to start over.

1 · Just have a look

Processed table

The series matrix: one table of values per sample as the submitters processed it. The smallest download, and it opens in Excel or R. Start here to see what the data look like.

Series matrix ↓
2 · Re-analyse it

Supplementary files

The count tables and other files the authors uploaded. Take only the samples you need, or the whole study as GSE302948_RAW.tar (it can run to tens of gigabytes).

All supplementary files ↗ Whole study · RAW.tar ↓
3 · Start from the raw reads

Raw sequencing reads

The original FASTQ files, straight from the sequencer, held at ENA. Large, and you align them yourself, so only choose this if you need to re-process the study from scratch.

Raw reads on ENA ↗

What the files usually look like: For RNA-seq the counts are usually a table among the supplementary files (look for 'counts', 'expression', 'FPKM' or 'TPM' in the file name). The series matrix of a sequencing study is sometimes nearly empty.

Also filed as BioProject PRJNA1292879 and SRA study SRP601635. Searching any of these in the dataset finder brings you back here.

NCBI GEO page ↗ Paper (PMID 41525323) ↗
Study design
8 conditions, mostly with about 6 replicates each
hSTAT2 mouse, Weanling brain, ZIKV, E12.5 inj… ×8 hSTAT2 mouse, Fetal brain, PBS, E16.5 injecti… ×6 hSTAT2 mouse, Fetal brain, ZIKV, E16.5 inject… ×6 hSTAT2 mouse, Weanling brain, PBS, E12.5 inje… ×6 hSTAT2 mouse, Fetal brain, PBS, E12.5 injecti… ×6 hSTAT2 mouse, Fetal brain, ZIKV, E12.5 inject… ×6 hSTAT2 mouse, Fetal brain, PBS, E12.5 injecti… ×6 hSTAT2 mouse, Fetal brain, ZIKV, E12.5 inject… ×4

Supports a between-group comparison across 48 samples.

How we read this: 8 replicated groups read from 48 sample titles; they account for 48 of them. These groups are guessed from the sample names, not taken from the paper, so check them against the sample list below before relying on them.

Samples in this study

+ 8 more — browse all 48 samples with per-sample file links →

Datasets on a similar topic

Search all mouse RNA-seq datasets in GEO →

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