Interdisciplinary study for the evaluation of biochemical alterations on mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis exposed to a tributyltin-polluted area

Abstract

An interdisciplinary approach was employed to monitor the concentration and the effects of butyltin compounds in mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis). Tissues from animals exposed to a marine area (Vado Ligure harbour) with a high concentration of tributyltin (TBT) were analysed and compared with control samples. TBT concentrations were measured by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and the protein pattern in gill tissues was studied by proteomic analysis. Several proteomic signatures associated with contaminant exposure were observed; spots that were significantly increased in all contaminated samples were identified by mass spectrometry as fragments of β-tubulin. The degradation of β-tubulin was then confirmed by western blot analysis with specific anti-β-tubulin antibody. The effects observed on mussel gills after exposure in the TBT-polluted area are discussed.

Environmental Proteomics: Changes in the Proteome of Marine Organisms in Response to Environmental Stress, Pollutants, Infection, Symbiosis, and Development

“…The identifications were based on homologies with sequences from other organisms, and thus it can be assumed that only the most evolutionarily conserved proteins were identified; however, this was evidence for the potential role of the cytoskeleton in pollutant stress. Another study on TBTexposed M. galloprovincialis showed similar changes in cytoskeletal proteins, e.g., tubulin (Magi et al 2008). Changes in the proteome of the hepatopancreas of mussels (M. edulis) in response to azaspiracid, a dinoflagellate-derived toxin found in shellfish, included proteins involved in eliminating xenobiotics (Nzoughet et al 2009).…”

Proteins in ecotoxicology – How, why and why not?

“…The identification of these minimal PES may overcome the lack of genome information, characteristic of these “non‐model but environmental relevant” species, that enables the detection of a pollutant in a field experiment 93, 94 based on previously obtained data 80, 91.…”

“…Despite all the drawbacks of using non‐model test‐organisms, in the last few years, the interest on this subject increased steadily resulting in several reports where proteomics has been successfully used to investigate the responses of ecotoxicologically relevant organisms to selected stressors. When focusing on invertebrate groups the number is lower but gradually increasing 34, 35, 37, 87, 88, 93, 94, 106, 107 (Lemos, M. F. L. et al ., Protein differential expression induced by endocrine disrupting compounds in a terrestrial isopod, Submitted). In this section we will focus only on those studies that address ecotoxicological issues.…”

Effects of low-pH stress on shell traits of the dove snail, <i>Anachis misera</i>, inhabiting shallow-vent environments off Kueishan Islet, Taiwan

“…It has been applied to laboratory and field studies, such as studies in which the blue mussel Mytilus edulis was exposed to polyaromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals (Knigge et al, 2004), to crude oil (Mi et al, 2006), to polychlorinated biphenyls, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons extracted from Baltic Sea sediments (Olsson et al, 2004) and studies in which the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis was exposed to a tributyltin-polluted area (Magi et al, 2008). The application of the proteomic approach to the vent mussel Bathymodiolus azoricus has been conducted with samples collected from three distinct hydrothermal vent fields in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (Companya et al, 2011).…”