Project description:In a recent egg injection study, we showed that in ovo exposure to perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS) affects the pipping success of developing chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) embryos. We also found evidence of thyroid hormone (TH) pathway interference at multiple levels of biological organization (i.e. somatic growth, mRNA expression and circulating free thyroxine levels). Based on these findings, we hypothesize that PFHxS exposure interferes with TH-dependent neurodevelopmental pathways. The present study investigates global transcriptional profiles of cerebral cortex tissue from chicken embryos following exposure to a solvent control, 890 or 38,000 ng PFHxS/g egg (n=4-5 per group); doses which lead to the adverse effects above. PFHxS significantly alters the expression (≥1.5-fold, p≤0.001) of 11 transcripts at the low dose (LD; 890 ng/g) and 101 transcripts at the high dose (HD; 38,000 ng/g). Functional enrichment analysis shows that PFHxS affects genes involved in tissue development and morphology, cellular assembly and organization, and cell-to-cell signalling. Pathway and interactome analyses suggest that genes may be affected through several potential regulatory molecules, including integrin receptors, myelocytomatosis viral oncogene and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein. This study identifies key functional and regulatory modes of PFHxS action involving TH-dependent and -independent neurodevelopmental pathways. Some of these TH-dependent mechanisms that occur during embryonic development include tight junction formation, signal transduction and integrin signaling, while TH-independent mechanisms include gap junction intercellular communication. Reference Design. Reference = pool of equal parts of all control and treated samples. Control groups and 2 treatment groups. Control samples were chicken embryonic cerebral cortex exposed DMSO only (solvent). Treatments were: chicken embryonic cerebral cortex exposed to 890 ng/g PFHxS (LD) and 38,000 ng/g PFHxS (HD).

Project description:Across evolutionary time, nearly all animal species have harnessed photoperiod to initiate processes that ultimately influence seasonal behavior and life history traits. In the freshwater cladoceran Daphnia magna, the effect of photoperiod on various life history traits has generally been investigated in conjunction with additional environmental stimuli. In the present study, we sought to untangling responses directly attributable to photoperiod in D. magna and identify the molecular processes underlying resultant behavioral and life history responses using functional analysis of global transcriptomic expression. D. magna were exposed to five different photoperiods immediately post-hatch for 21d where a standard long-day photoperiod of 16 hours light and 8 hours dark (16L:8D) served as the control relative to 4L:20D, 8L:16D, 12L:12L, and 20L:4D photoperiods. Entrainment to short-day photo-periods (4L:20D, 8L:16D, and 12L:12L) resulted in significantly increased light-avoidance behaviors relative to the control photoperiod where young Daphnia (7d old) displayed the most pronounced avoidance responses. Correspondingly, functional transcriptomics identified differential transcriptional expression of genes involved in glutamate signaling, which is critical in arthropod light-avoidance responses, as well as period circadian protein and proteins coding F-box/LRR-repeat domains, all of which contribute to establishing circadian rhythms in arthropods. Short-day photoperiods also induced increased metabolic rates which corresponded with broad-scale changes in transcriptional expression across multiple systems-level energy metabolism pathways. The most striking observation was increased male production across short-day photoperiods (4L:20D, 8L:16D, and 12L:12D). Transcriptional expression consistent with multiple putative mechanisms of male production were observed including expression suggestive of increased glutamate signaling; a response observed to induce male production in D. pulex via photo-period sensitive mechanisms. Overall, the results demonstrate the importance of photoperiod on behavior and life history trajectories in D. magna where we have now established multiple putative mechanistic pathways underlying several critical responses.

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Photoperiod perturbations impact perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS) induced developmental toxicity [PFHxS-5day]

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