Functional environmental genomics of a municipal landfill soil
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Folsomia candida
SUBMITTER: Dick Roelofs
PROVIDER: E-GEOD-37154 | biostudies-arrayexpress |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress
Similar Datasets
Project description:It has long been recognized that species occupy a specific ecological niche within their ecosystem. The ecological niche is defined as the number of conditions and resources that limit species distribution. Within their ecological niche, species do not exist in a single physiological state but in a number of states we call the Natural Operating Range. In this paper we link ecological niche theory to physiological ecology by measuring gene expression levels of collembolans exposed to various natural conditions. The soil-dwelling collembolan Folsomia candida was exposed to 26 natural soils with different soil characteristics (soil type, land use, practice, etc). The animals were exposed for two days and gene expression levels were measured. The main factor found to regulate gene expression was the soil type (sand or clay), in which 18.5% of the measured genes were differentially expressed. Gene Ontology analysis showed animals exposed to sandy soils experience general stress, affecting cell homeostasis and replication. Multivariate analysis linking soil chemical data to gene expression data revealed that soil fertility influences gene expression. Land-use and practice had less influence on gene expression; only forest soils showed a different expression pattern. A variation in gene expression variation analysis showed overall low variance in gene expression. The large difference in response to soil type was caused by the soil physicochemical properties where F. candida experiences clay soils and sandy soils as very different from each other. This collembolan prefers fertile soils with high organic matter content, as soil fertility was found to correlate with gene expression and animals exposed to sandy soils (which, in general, have lower organic matter content) experience more general stress. Finally, we conclude that there is no such thing as a fixed physiological state for animals in their ecological niche and the boundary between the ecological niche and a stressed state depends on the genes/pathways investigated. Test animals were exposed to 26 natural soils + 2 control soils. 4 biological replicates per soil containing 25 grams of soil and 30 23-day-old animals per replicate, RNA was isolated after two days of exposure. for the micro-array hybridization design we made use of an interwoven loop design. from the four replicates per soil two were labeled with Cy3 and 2 with Cy5. It was made sure that now two replicates of the same soil were ever hybridized against the same soil.
2011-02-15 | E-GEOD-21213 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:This study examined how transcriptomics tools can be included in a Triad-based soil quality assessment to assess the toxicity of soils from river banks polluted by metals. To that end we measured chemical soil properties and used the standardized ISO guideline for ecotoxicological tests and a newly developed microarray for gene expression in the indicator soil arthropod, Folsomia candida. Microarray analysis revealed that the oxidative stress response pathway was significantly affected in all soils except one. The data indicate that changes in cell redox homeostasis are a significant signature of metal stress. Finally, 32 genes showed significant dose-dependent expression with metal concentrations. They are promising genetic markers providing an early indication of the need for higher tier testing in soil quality. One of the least polluted soils showed toxicity in the bioassay that could be removed by sterilization. The gene expression profile for this soil did not show a metal-related signature, confirming that another factor than metals (most likely of biological origin) caused the toxicity. This study demonstrates the feasibility and advantages of integrating transcriptomics into Triad-based soil quality assessment. Combining molecular and organismal life-history traitM-bM-^@M-^Ys stress responses helps identifying causes of adverse effect in bioassays. Further validation is needed for verifying the set of genes with dose-dependent expression patterns linked with toxic stress. We used a one-color microarray design where each sample was hybridized to a single array
2014-02-01 | E-GEOD-52393 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) continue to cause environmental challenges due to their release in the environment by a great variety of anthropogenic activities and their accumulation in soil ecosystems. Here we studied the toxicological effect of the model PAH phenanthrene (Phe) on the soil invertebrate model Enchytraeus crypticus at the individual, tissue and molecular level. Organisms were exposed to Phe for 2 and 21 days to the (previously estimated) EC10 and EC50 (population reproduction over 3 weeks). Gene expression profiling did not reveal a typical Phe-induced biotransfor-mation signature, as it usually does in arthropods and vertebrates. Instead, we observed only general metabolic processes to be affected after 2 days of exposure, such as translation and ATP synthesis-coupled electron transport. Histological sections of tissues of 2-day exposed animals did not show any deviations from the control situation. In contrast, prolonged exposure up to 21 days showed histopathological effects: chloragogenous cells were highly vacuolated and hypertrophic. This was corroborated by differential expression of genes related to immune response and oxidative stress at the transcriptomic level. The data exemplify the complexity and species-specific features of PAH toxicity among soil invertebrate communities, which restricts read-across and extrapolation in the context of soil ecological risk assessment. The data presented in our manuscript is an exposure experiment where E. cryticus is exposed to phenanthrene EC10 and EC50 on reproduction for 2 and 21 days. A single channel, interwoven loop design was used to test animals. 4 biological replicates per condition were used containing 25 grams of soil and 5 - 7, adult old animals per replicate. The platform is a 4*180k Agilent platform containing some 86k E. crypticus probes in duplicate. However, only a subset of the probes (23k) was used for the analysis. To see which probes were used in the analysis see the raw data files control type column, only probes which are denoted with a 0 were used.
2015-12-18 | E-GEOD-74114 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:This study investigates transcriptional responses of the springtail Folsomia candida to two relevant concentrations of diclofenac A direct design was used where springtails were exposed to 3two concentrations of diclofenac (EC10 and EC50 on reproduction) and microarrays were directly contrased to those from animals exposed to clean LUFA2.2 soil. 4 biological replicates were used with each containing 25 grams of soil and 30 adult, randomly selected, age sychronized springtails
2014-10-01 | E-GEOD-59589 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The soil worm Enchytraeus crypticus (oligochaete) is an ecotoxicology model species although without genome or transcriptome sequence information. The present research aimed at studying, via high-throughput pyrosequencing, the transcriptome of Enchytraeus crypticus, sampled from multiple test conditions, and the construction of a high-density microarray for functional genomic studies. A pyrosequencing run retrieved approximately 1.5 million reads representing 645 million bases. After assembly, 27,296 contigs and 87,686 singletons were obtained. from which 44% and 25% were annotated as protein-coding genes. We show that the high amount of orphan genes is not due to poor sequence or assemble quality: 84% of the contig sequences contains an open reading frame with a start codon and E. crypticus homologs were identified for 92% of the core eukaryotic genes. Moreover, 65 and 77% of the unknown singletons and contigs, respectively, showed transcriptional activity. An Agilent 180K microarray platform was designed and validated by hybridizing cDNA from 3 day zinc- exposed E. crypticus to the concentration corresponding to 50% reduction in reproduction (EC50). Overall, 70% of all probes exerted a hybridization signal above background level. More specifically, the probes derived from contigs showed a wider range of average intensities when compared to probes derived from singletons. In total, 522 significantly regulated transcripts were identifying upon zinc exposure. Several significantly regulated genes exerted predicted functions (e.g. zinc efflux, zinc transport) associated with zinc stress. Unexpectedly, the microarray data suggest that zinc exposure alters retrotransposon activity in the E. crypticus genome. In conclusion, characterization of the presented E. crypticus transcriptome and associated microarray platform is a valuable and high quality resource that permits further functional genomics experiments examining gene expression patterns underlying distinct environmental stress conditions. We show that unknown sequences are not the result of technical errors but mostly represent functional genes that are actively transcribed. The data presented in our manuscript is part of a larger experiment which was performed in single, large loop design. The analysis presented here can be replicated only by including all raw data from the larger experiment (all raw files are included in the archive linked to this submission). A single channel, interwoven loop design was used to test animals exposed to zinc EC50 on reproduction as compared to untreated controls for 4 days. 4 biological replicates per condition were used containing 25 grams of soil and 5 - 7, adult old animals per replicate. T4_con stands for untreated control soil while T4_50 are the samples exposed to EC50 of zinc on reproduction.
2014-05-01 | E-GEOD-51838 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:We investigated the toxicity of soil samples derived from a former municipal landfill site in the South of the Netherlands, where a bioremediation project is running aiming at reusing the site for recreation. Both an organic soil extract and the original soil sample was investigated using the ISO standardised Folsomia soil ecotoxicological testing and gene expression analysis. The 28 day survival/reproduction test revealed that the ecologically more relevant original soil sample was more toxic than the organic soil extract. Microarray analysis showed that the more toxic soil samples induced gene regulatory changes in twice as less genes compared to the soil extract. Consequently gene regulatory changes were highly dependent on sample type, and were to a lesser extent caused by exposure level. An important biological process shared among the two sample types was the detoxification pathway for xenobiotics (biotransformation I, II and III) suggesting a link between compound type and observed adverse effects. Finally, we were able to retrieve a selected group of genes that show highly significant dose-dependent gene expression and thus were tightly linked with adverse effects on reproduction. Expression of four cytochrome P450 genes showed highest correlation values with reproduction, and maybe promising genetic markers for soil quality. However, a more elaborate set of environmental soil samples is needed to validate the correlation between gene expression induction and adverse phenotypic effects.
2012-04-16 | GSE37154 | GEO
Project description:Copper has long been applied for agricultural practices. Like other metals, copper is highly persistent in the environment and biologically active long after its use has ceased. Here we present a unique study on the long-term effects (27 years) of copper and pH on soil microbial communities and on Folsomia candida, an important representative of the soil macrofauna, in an experiment with a full factorial, random block design. Bacterial communities were mostly affected by pH. These effects were prominent in Acidobacteria, while Actinobacteria and Gammaroteobacteria communities were affected by original and bioavailable copper. Reproduction and survival of the collembolan F. candida was not affected by the studied copper concentrations. However, the transcriptomic responses to copper reflected a mechanism of copper transport and detoxification, while pH exerted effects on nucleotide and protein metabolism and (acute) inflammatory response. We conclude that microbial community structure explained the history of copper contamination, while gene expression analysis of F. candida is associated with the current level of bioavailable copper. Combined analysis at various trophic levels is highly relevant in the context of assessing long-term soil pollution. A single channel, interwoven loop design was used to test animals exposed to the copper-spiked field soil samples. The field soil was spiked with 4 copper and 4 pH treatments yielding 16 combinations. Combinations are displayed in the Sample descriptions, with 1 M-bM-^@M-^S 4 representing the copper concentrations from low to high, and A-D representing the soil pH from low to high. 4 biological replicates per copper/pH combination were used. Each replicate contained 25 grams of soil and thirty 23-day-old animals.
2012-04-03 | E-GEOD-29644 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The present invention relates to methods for determining soil quality, and especially soil pollution, using the invertebrate soil organism Folsomia candida also designated as springtail. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method for determining soil quality comprising: contacting Folsomia Candida with a soil sample to be analysed during a time period of 1 to 5 days; isolating said soil contacted Folsomia Candida; extracting RNA from said isolated soil contacted Folsomia Candida; determing a gene expression profile based on said extracted RNA using microarray technology; comparing said gene expression profile with a reference gene expression profile; and determing soil quality based expression level differences between said gene expression profile and said control expression profile. A direct design was used where springtails were exposed to 3 field soils (2 polluted and 1 clean) and cadium and microarrays were directly contrased to those from animals exposed to clean LUFA2.2 soil. 4 biological replicates were used with each containing 25 grams of soil and 30 adult, randomly selected, age sychronized springtails
2014-07-19 | E-GEOD-59588 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Environmental risk assessment relies heavily on the use of bioassays to assess the environmental impact of chemicals. Gene expression is gaining acceptance as a valuable mechanistic endpoint in bioassays and effect-based screening. Data analysis and its results however, are often complex and not directly applicable in risk assessment. Classifier analysis is a promising method to turn complex gene expression analysis results into answers suitable for risk assessment. We have assembled a large gene expression dataset assembled from multiple studies and experiments in the springtail Folsomia candida, with the aim of selecting a set of genes that can be trained to classify general toxic stress. By performing differential expression analysis prior to classification we were able to select a set of 135 genes which was enriched in stress related processes. This set was then used to classify two test sets comprised of chemical spiked soils, polluted soils and clean soils and compared to another, more traditional feature selection for classification. The gene set presented here outperformed the more traditionally selected gene set. This gene set has the potential to be used as a biomarker to test for adverse effects caused by chemicals in springtails to provide endpoints in environmental risk assessment. The data presented in our manuscript is part of a larger experiment which was performed in single, large loop design. Only the samples used in the study presented here are named while the other samples will remain unnamed. All the data can still be used for normalization after which the analysis presented in the manuscript can be replicated. A single channel, interwoven loop design was used to test animals exposed to a control and to 5 concentrations of cadmium and phenanthrene (cadmium concentrations are: cad_1 till cad_5: 5.8, 14.5, 28.9, 57.9 and 115.8 mg/Kg respectively and phenanthrene concentrations are: phe_1 till Phe_5: 0, 4.6, 11.4, 22.9, 45.8 and 91.6 mg/Kg soil respectively). Exposures lasted for 2 days and used 4 biological replicates per condition each containing 30 grams soil and 30 individuals.
2015-11-09 | E-GEOD-70877 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:2,5-furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) is the top-12 value-added chemicals derived from biomass that may serve as a 'green' substitute for terephthalate acid (TPA) in polyesters. FDCA can be synthesized chemically from 5-(hydroxymethyl) furfural (HMF), which is produced from fructose or glucose. To investigate impact of the production chain of FDCA on terrestrial ecosystem and unravel molecular pathways invoked and the biological process affected in the animal, a microarray analysis was applied to measure the transcriptome-wide response in soil invertebrates Folsomia candida. Microarrays examined transcriptional changes at EC50 concentrations of FDCA, HMF and TPA spiked in sterilized LUFA 2.2 soils. The results indicated FDCA and TPA caused no significant change in gene expression, which may due to the low chemical water solubility leading to slow uptake by the animal from the pore water after. A substantial number of genes were significantly regulated in F. candida after exposure to HMF. Gene Ontology analysis showed many biological process were significantly affected, such as nucleic acid metabolism, transcriptional metabolic process, cell developmental process and oxidation-reduction process. Transcriptional profile also indicated HMF can be biotransformed by F. candida into SMF which is genotoxic and mutagenic. The current research shows that environmental risk of the FDCA production chain from biomass is not due to the final product but to the intermediate HMF. We used a one-color microarray design where each sample was hybridized to a single array
2016-06-01 | E-GEOD-74640 | biostudies-arrayexpress