Stress-inducible transgenic nematodes as biomonitors of soil and water pollution

A small temperature rise may contribute towards the apparent induction by microwaves of heat-shock gene expression in the nematodeCaenorhabditis Elegans

“…This was detected using transgenic strains carrying stress-inducible hsp16-1::reporter constructs (principally a lacZ reporter in strain PC72), in which heat-induced expression becomes apparent only at temperatures exceeding 27C (de Pomerai et al, 2000a). At exposure temperatures of 25-26C, PC72 worms are sensitive to a variety of exogenous stressors, including heavy metals, pesticides, anti-worm-surface antibodies, and microwaves (Power et al, 1998). In all cases, exposure to the test stressor for between 2 and 24 h results in a marked induction of reporter-gene expression (as -galactosidase and/or GFP), relative to non-exposed control worms derived from the same source population.…”

CYP35: Xenobiotically induced gene expression in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

“…Our ongoing interest is to further characterize the CYP specific genetic response and thereby not only provide new insights regarding the nematode's reaction to man-made chemical stress, but also exploit CYP as a biomarker for common environmental stressors. C. elegans has proven useful in classical in vivo toxicity testing (lethality, reproduction, growth or developmental toxicity) [12][13][14] as well as in more recently developed molecular biological approaches like differential display [15,16], and DNA microarray analyses [17,18]; or systems with transgenic animals [19][20][21][22]. This latter system is based on heat shock promoter elements inducible by various kinds of natural and man-made stress.…”

The toxicity of dithiocarbamate fungicides to soil nematodes, assessed using a stress-inducible transgenic strain ofCaenorhabditis elegans

“…Strain PC72 has been used as a biomonitor for quantitative assessment of stress responses to a wide range of chemical and physical stressors [32], including heavy metals [29], contaminated field samples [30], captan fungicides [33], immunological attack against the worm surface [34], and radiofrequency radiation as used in mobile telephones [35]. Much of this work has been done in aqueous media [29][30][31][32][33][34], but procedures for recovering worms from soil [17] allow this approach to be adapted for assessments of soil toxicity [36] (R. Power and D. de Pomerai, unpublished). Apart from a previous study involving captan fungicides [33], there are few reports of stress responses induced by widely used commercial pesticides, despite widespread public concern over possible health hazards associated with long-term chronic exposure.…”