Gene Expression Analysis of the Stress Response to Lithium, Nickel, and Zinc in Paracentrotus lividus Embryos

Abstract

Many anthropogenic pollutants such as metals are discharged into the marine environment through modern sources. Among these, lithium (Li), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn) can interfere with biological processes in many organisms when their concentration rises. These metals are toxic to sea urchin embryos, affecting their development. Indeed, animal/vegetal and dorso/ventral embryonic axes are differently perturbed: Li is a vegetalizing agent, Ni can disrupt dorso-ventral axis, Zn can be animalizing. To address the molecular response adopted by embryos to cope with these metals or involved in the gene networks regulating embryogenesis, and to detect new biomarkers for evaluating hazards in polluted environments in a well-known in vivo model, we applied a high-throughput screening approach to sea urchin embryos. After fertilization, Paracentrotus lividus embryos were exposed to Li, Ni, and Zn for 24/48 h. At both endpoints, RNAs were analyzed by NanoString nCounter technology. By in silico analyses, we selected a panel of 127 transcripts encoding for regulatory and structural proteins, ranked in categories: Apoptosis, Defense, Immune, Nervous, Development, and Biomineralization. The data analysis highlighted the dysregulation of many genes in a metal-dependent manner. A functional annotation analysis was performed by the KEEG Orthology database. This study provides a platform for research on metals biomarkers in sea urchins.

Carbonic anhydrases in development: morphological observations and gene expression profiling in sea urchin embryos exposed to acetazolamide

“…The differential expression of genes was measured by the nCounter NanoString technology (Diatech Labline) [27], as previously described in Bonaventura et al [28,29]. Briefly, a panel of 127 P. lividus transcript sequences were selected and retrieved from the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database (http://NCBI.nlm.nih.gov), including Pl-Z12-1 internal reference gene (NCBI, Acc.…”

Special Issue on “Insights on Ecotoxicological Effects of Anthropogenic Contaminants in Aquatic Organisms”

“…Different types of human activities can release these metals into the environment where they can affect aquatic organisms. In nature, sea urchin embryos are part of the zooplankton and, since the birth of experimental embryology, they have been one of the best studied model organisms in ecotoxicological studies [13].…”