Project description:Effects of bisphenol A (BPA) on ovarian transcript profiles as well as targeted endpoints with endocrine/reproductive relevance were examined in two fish species, fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) and zebrafish (Danio rerio), exposed in parallel using matched experimental designs. Four days of waterborne exposure to 10 µg BPA caused significant vitellogenin induction in both species. However, zebrafish were less sensitive to effects on hepatic gene expression and steroid production than fathead minnow and the magnitude of vitellogenin induction was more modest. The concentration-response at the ovarian transcriptome level was non-monotonic and violated assumptions that underlie proposed methods for estimating hazard thresholds from transcriptomic results. However, the non-monotonic profile was consistent among species and there were nominal similarities in the functions associated with the differentially expressed genes, suggesting potential activation of common pathway perturbation motifs in both species. Overall, the results provide an effective case study for considering the potential application of ecotoxicogenomics to ecological risk assessments and provide novel comparative data regarding effects of BPA in fish. Fish were exposed to 0, 0.01, 0.1, 1.0, 10, or 100 µg BPA/L delivered in a continuous flow (45 ml/min) of sand filtered, UV treated, Lake Superior Water, without the use of carrier solvents. The design employed six replicate tanks per treatment. Three of the replicates were loaded with three male and three female zebrafish per tank, while the remaining three replicates were loaded with three male and three female fathead minnows. Addition of fish to the exposure tanks was staggered by replicate such that all sampling could be completed within 60 min of the desired 96 h exposure duration. After 96 h of exposure, fish were anesthetized in a buffered solution of tricaine methanesulfonate (MS-222; Finquel; Argent, Redmond, WA, USA) and weighed. Blood was collected from the caudal vasculature using microhematocrit tubes, centrifuged to separate the plasma, and plasma was stored at -80oC until analyzed. Liver, gonad, and brain tissues (including pituitary gland) were snap frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80oC until extracted. Total RNA was isolated from ovary tissue of both fathead minnow and zebrafish using RNeasy kits (Qiagen, Valencia, CA, USA). RNA quality was evaluated using an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent, Wilmington, DE, USA) and RNA was quantified spectrophotometrically (Nanodrop). Total RNA samples were stored at -80oC until used for microarray analyses. Ovarian transcripts from 32 fathead minnows (n=5 per treatment, except for control and 1.0 µg BPA/L, n=6) were analyzed using a custom, 15,000 gene microarray (GEO Platform Accession GPL9248) purchased from Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, CA, USA). Ovarian transcripts from 34 zebrafish (n=6 per treatment, except 0.01 and 0.1 µg BPA/L, n=5) were analyzed using a commercial 44,000 feature microarray (Agilent design 019161; GEO Platform Accession GPL6457). The same hybridization and scanning procedures were used for both platforms. Briefly, microarrays were hybridized following the manufacturer’s guidelines for One-Color Microarray-Based Gene Expression Analysis (version 5.7; Agilent). Hybridizations were conducted with 1 µg of total RNA. Complementary DNA synthesis, cRNA labeling, amplification, and hybridizations were performed following the manufacturer’s kits and protocols (Quick Amp labeling kit; Agilent). Scanning was conducted at 5 µm resolution using an Axon GenePix® 4000B Microarray Scanner (Molecular Devices Inc., Concord, Ontario, Canada). Data were extracted from microarray array images using Agilent Feature Extraction Software (Agilent; Palo Alto, CA, USA).

Project description:This experiment was conducted as part of an overall study aimed at examining effects of a dopamine receptor antagonist on reproduction, behavior, and gene expression in cyprinid fish. Relative to gene expression, we hypothesized that if haloperidol disrupted normal regulation of the HPG axis, there may be robust transcriptional alterations in the ovary of exposed females that might serve as useful markers of exposure and/or effects. For the purposes of this study, robust transcriptional alterations were defined as those detected in two separate fish species (fathead minnow and zebrafish), exposed to the same concentration of haloperidol for the same duration. There is a companion zebrafish microarray experiment (GSE14861) that these data are compared to. Transcriptional responses in the ovary of the two species are compared in terms of differentially expressed genes, enriched gene ontology categories they represent, and associated pathways. Fathead minnow and zebrafish microarray experiment Samples for microarray analysis were generated in a separate, 96 h, continuous flow-through experiment. Nominal treatment concentrations for the microarray experiment were 0 and 50 Î¼g haloperidol/L. Chemical (or control water) delivery was initiated 24 h prior to adding fish to the tanks. To start the experiment, fathead minnows (4 males, 4 females per tank) were added to each of three tanks per treatment group, while zebrafish (6 males, 6 females per tank) were added to each of two tanks per group. The time of fish addition was staggered by replicate within each treatment such that all samples from a given exposure tank could be collected within 60 min of the intended 96 h exposure duration. After 96 h, male and female zebrafish and female fathead minnows were anesthetized in buffered MS-222 and weighed. Whole gonads were removed, weighed, and preserved in RNAlater. Total RNA was isolated from fathead minnow ovary samples using RNeasy kits (Qiagen). RNA quality was assessed with a Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer and quantity was determined using a Nanodrop ND-1000 spectrophotometer (Nanodrop Technologies, Wilmington, DE, USA). Aliquots of six fathead minnow ovary RNA samples per treatment group (two from each replicate per treatment) were prepared for microarray analysis.

Project description:Diethylstilbestrol (DES) is a synthetic estrogen that has been banned for use in humans, but still is employed in livestock and aquaculture operations in some parts of the world. Detectable concentrations of DES in effluent and surface waters have been reported to range from slightly below 1 to greater than 10 ng/L. Little is known, however, concerning the toxicological potency of DES in fish. In this study, sexually-mature fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) of both sexes were exposed to 1, 10 or 100 ng DES/L water in a flow-through system. Tissue concentrations of DES and changes in a number of estrogen-responsive endpoints, including alterations to the hepatic transcriptome in females, were measured in the fish at the end of a 4-d exposure, and after a 4-d depuration/recovery period in clean water. The objectives of the study were to measure accumulation of DES in fish tissues, characterize effects of the chemical on physiological endpoints related to reproductive performance, and to evaluate DES's potency relative to concentrations reported in aquatic environments. The current series includes n=12 microarrays associated with exposure-phase samples (collected from fish exposed continuously for 4 d). Fish were exposed to 0, 1, 10, or 100 ng DES/L delivered in a continuous flow (45 ml/min) of sand filtered, UV treated, Lake Superior Water, without the use of carrier solvents. Flow of DES into the test system was initiated without fish present and continued for 1 d. Exposures then were started by placing three male and three female sexually-mature fathead minnows into each tank. There were eight replicate tanks for the control and 100 ng/L treatments, and six replicate tanks for the 1 and 10 ng/L groups. The fish were held at 25+1M-BM-:C under a 16:8 L:D photoperiod and were fed frozen adult brine shrimp twice daily (San Francisco Bay Brand, Newark, CA, USA). Fish used for the experiment were from an on-site culture, and all procedures involving animals conformed to guidelines approved by the local Animal Care and Use Committee. After the 4-d exposure, fish from three tanks from each treatment (n=9 per sex) were sampled for determination of various biological endpoints. At this time fish from two additional tanks from the control and 100 ng/L treatments also were sampled for determination of DES tissue residues (n=6 per sex). Delivery of DES to the test system was subsequently stopped, and fish from the remaining three tanks per treatment group were sampled 4 d later (n= 9 per sex). The fathead minnows were euthanized with buffered MS-222 (Argent, Redmond, VA, USA) and weighed. Fish were scored for occurrence and relative expression of nuptial tubercles, which in males can be reduced by ER agonists. Blood was collected from the caudal vein/artery with a microhematocrit tube, and plasma was separated by centrifugation and stored at -80M-BM-:C. Gonads were removed from males and a subsample (8.5M-BM-13.0 mg; meanM-BM-1SD) was immediately immersed in tissue culture media for determination of ex vivo steroid production. Livers were removed from both sexes and flash-frozen for gene expression analyses using microarray (females) or real-time QPCR (males). Hepatic transcripts from three females per treatment group, in each phase of the experiment (except n=2 from recovery phase 10 ng/L) were analyzed using a custom 15,000 feature microarray (GEO Platform Accession GPL9248). Data sets for the exposure phase (n=12 microarrays) and recovery phase (n=11) were normalized independently using Fastlo (Ballman et al., 2004) implemented in R (http://www.r-project.org/), but analyzed using parallel approaches.

Project description:Production, usage and disposal of the munitions constituent (MC) cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX) has led to environmental releases on military facilities. The chemical attributes of RDX are conducive for leaching to surface water which may put aquatic organisms at risk of exposure. Because RDX has been observed to cause aberrant neuromuscular effects across a wide range of animal phyla, we assessed the effects of RDX on central nervous system (CNS) function in the representative aquatic ecotoxicological model species, fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas). A brain-tissue based cDNA library enriched for transcripts differentially expressed in response to RDX exposure was developed for fathead minnow and was transitioned to custom cDNA-based microarrays. All 4,128 cDNAs were sequenced, quality filtered and assembled yielding 3,018 unique sequences and 945 significant blastx matches (E ≤ 10-5). Bioassays were conducted exposing fathead minnows to RDX at 0.625, 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 mg/L or an acetone-spike control for 10d. Overt toxicity of RDX in fathead minnow occurred only at the highest exposure concentration resulting in 50% mortality. Conversely, Bayesian analysis of microarray data indicated significant changes in transcript expression in fathead minnow brain tissue at RDX concentrations as low as 0.625 mg/L. In total, 154 microarray targets representing 44 unique transcript identities were differentially expressed in RDX exposures, the majority of which were validated by RT-qPCR. Investigation of molecular pathways, gene ontology and individual gene functions indicated that RDX exposures affected metabolic processes involved in: oxygen transport, neurological function, calcium binding / signaling, energy metabolism, cell cycle / cell proliferation, oxidative stress and ubiquitination. In total, our study indicated that RDX exposure affected molecular processes critical to CNS function in fathead minnow. 10 Day RDX Exposure, Brain Tissue Investigation: Sub-adult fathead minnows were exposed to RDX in a 10d dose-series experiment (0.625, 1.25, 2.5, 5.0, or 10 mg/L RDX) which included an acetone-spike control (1% acetone). Each experimental treatment included 8 replicate fish (48 total fish) and endpoints included mortality, total weight and neurotoxicogenomics. The 1.25mg/L dose was not included in the microarray experiment. Please see attached PDF file for detailed 'Balanced, Interwoven Loop Design'.

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Global ovary gene interaction network structure informs biological effects of Chemical stressors

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