Using transcriptomic tools to evaluate biological effects across effluent gradients at a diverse set of study sites in Minnesota, USA
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ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Pimephales promelas
PROVIDER: GSE53204 | GEO | 2013/12/13
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA231237
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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Project description:To assess the impact of a municiple effluent across different environments, a gradient design (upstream, downstream, and at effluent) was set up across three waste water treatment plant outflows in three different regions of MN. These three sites represents vastly different land use and contamination profiles. The upstream location at each site was used as a point of comparison to reduce site specific differences in water. Fish were exposed at three sites in three locations for 4 days. The objectives of the study were to 1). determine if biological impact of the effluent could be detected at the downstream site; 2). If the use of the upstream site would allow point source influence to be detected over the ambient level of biological activity; 3). if using functional analyses of transcriptomic results would show similarities between effleunt and downstream sites. The current series contains n=53 microarrays associated with fish exposed at three locations (upstream, effluent, downstream) at 3 different site R, H, E for 4 days until tissues were collected At the specific locations (UP, EF, DS), sexually mature female fathead minnows (SI-SM2) were exposed to location specific water in mini-mobile environmental monitoring units (MMU)14 for a period of 4d, at each of three sites (R, H, E) during the summer and fall of 2010 (SI-SM3). The MMUs allowed for consistency in aeration, temperature, and feeding. In the case of the riverine R and H sites, the MMU was supplied with a continuous flow of location-specific water. Due to logistical constraints, exposures at the lake site (E) were conducted under static renewal conditions within the MMUs. However, the cumulative number of daily water exchanges were equivalent to those in the flow-through studies. After exposure fish were anesthetized (buffered MS-222), and necropsied at a facility near the site, specific tissues were excised and flash frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored at -80M-BM-0C. Gonads were removed from female and flash-frozen for gene expression analyses using microarray. Ovarian transcripts from six females per location (three locations per site, three sites) were analyzed using a custom 15,000 feature microarray (GEO Platform Accession GPL9248). Data sets for this phase (n=53 microarrays) were normalized independently using Fastlo (Ballman et al., 2004) implemented in R (http://www.r-project.org/), but analyzed using parallel approaches.
2013-12-13 | E-GEOD-53204 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Three surface waters in Gainesville, Florida were used in a 48 hour whole effluents exposure to assess gene expression profiles of male fathead minnow liver. Microarray analysis was used to determine changes in gene expression of exposed fish to waters from a site downstream of a wastewater treatment plant (streamwater), a wastewater treatment plant (wastewater), and a lake (stormwater). Differences in gene expression between fish exposed to collected waters and controls were observed. Number of altered genes and biological processes were 1028 and 18 for stormwater; 787 and 19 for streamwater; and: 575 and 12 for wastewater. In general, the effects observed in all exposed fish were related with fatty acid metabolism, DNA repair, oxidation-reduction process, cell wall catabolic process and apoptosis. All exposed fish showed altered expression of genes related with DNA damage repair. In particular fish exposed to stormwater and streamwater showed downregulation of several key intermediates transcripts of cholesterol. The presence and environmental persistence of perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) in these waters, the resemblance in known effects on transcripts with those found in this study, suggest that the set of genes differentially regulated in fathead minnows after 48 hours of exposure may be attributed to exposure to PFCs. Three surface water sites were chosen for effluent collection in Gainesville, Florida: A lake (stormwater), surface water downstream of a wastewater treatment plant (streamwater), and a wastewater treatment plant effluent used for landscaping irrigation (wastewater). Water from each site was collected two days prior to the fish exposure experiment using Chemfluor ® tubing and a 120 liters steel barrels coated with polyester resin (gel coat) to avoid cross-contamination. Three barrels for each effluent were collected during day 1. Water from the barrel was transported to the laboratory and pumped into four fiberglass cylinders in the aquatic toxicology facility. Water from each cylinder was then pumped into four replicate aquariums per treatment and kept for 1 day without fish (pre-treatment). On day 2, four male fathead minnows from a common tank were transferred to each replicate aquarium and kept for 48 hours, with one 75% water change after first 24 hours. The exposure system consisted of 40 L glass aquaria. Each exposure was conducted in quadruplicate and each aquarium contained the four male fish in 25 L of treatment water . The water used in the control treatment was carbon filtered, dechlorinated tap water. The positions of the treatment tanks were randomized and test initiation times were staggered to ensure an exposure/sampling interval of 48 h. The fish were not fed during the experiment. The temperature range of the water was 24-26 °C with a photoperiod of 16 h light: 8 h dark. Liver was isolate from 4 males indviduals for each treatment except for control group (3 individuals).
2012-04-24 | E-GEOD-37550 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:We applied an effects-based approach to determine if the impact of specific chemicals in mixtures discharged by waste water treatment plants could be linked to well-defined gene expression changes in exposed fish. Fathead minnows were deployed in cages for 2, 4, or 8 days at three locations near two WWTP discharge sites in the Saint Louis Bay, Duluth, MN and one upstream control site. The impact of 51 chemicals detected in the surface water on gene expression in ovaries of caged fish was determined using exposure activity ratios, existing knowledge on chemical:gene relationships, and analysis of gene expression co-variance with surface water chemistry. Thirty-two chemicals could be linked to gene expression and 12 were confirmed by other sources such as the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD). Chemical:gene associations determined by co-variation were supported by exposure activity ratios sufficient to cause biological effects, known chemical:gene associations from CTD, and upstream regulator analysis of the Ingenuity knowledge base. The analyses provided multiple lines of evidence that bisphenol A and estrone are likely sources of estrogenic effects on gene expression found at the study sites.
2017-03-21 | GSE96678 | GEO
Project description:Many biomonitoring tools/approaches have been proposed to assess presence of endocrine active chemicals (EACs) and their biological effects in the field. Although these tools have provided valuable information, they are often limited by their specificity for certain groups of EACs and they may not account for interactions between EACs. This study aims to evaluate utility of transcriptomic and metabolomic technologies for effects monitoring in the field, and to advance integration of omic and environmental chemistry data sets. The objective was to utilize transcriptomic biomonitoring to determine the relative contribution of wastewater treatment plant effluents to biological effects observed in fish exposed to ambient waters receiving the effluents. Adult male fathead minnow were exposed to treated wastewater effluent or stream water up or downstream the plant in three different watersheds for 4 days. After exposure, the liver of 5-7 fish per treatment per site (i.e 19-21 fish from each watershed) were analyzed by microarrays. The transcriptomic profiles were compared to control fish exposed to Lake Superior filtered water.
2014-01-04 | E-GEOD-49098 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Rainbow darter (Etheostoma caeruleum) are a small benthic fish found in North America. This species is sensitive to sewage effluent in the environment, showing the presence of intersex in up to 80% of males in near-field areas in the Grand River, ON. To learn more about the molecular events associated with intersex, we developed a customized oligonucleotide microarray (4x180K) with next generation sequencing (454 Roche) to characterize molecular responses in the gonad. Transcriptomics was performed on both males and females from both a reference site and a polluted site. Males with and without intersex from the polluted site were compared to the control males. Rainbow darter were sampled from from the Grand River in May 2011. Fish were selected according to the location, gonad maturity, and intersex index. Reference fish were taken from the upstream to the urban area; exposed fish were taken from downstream of from Kitchener MWWE treatment plant.
2014-05-22 | E-GEOD-57394 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:The federally endangered Okaloosa darter (Etheostoma okaloosae) is found almost exclusively on the Eglin Air Force Base in the Choctawhatchee Bay watershed of Florida. Portions of this limited habitat are threatened with erosion of soils, altered hydrology, and impaired water quality. One stream reach in particular, East Turkey Creek, has demonstrated potential water quality problems including poor invertebrate bioassessment scores (IBI), uncharacteristically high conductivity values, and low numbers of Okaloosa darters. General water quality (dissolved oxygen, specific conductance, pH, temperature, and relative turbidity and primary productivity) was characterized in both the potentially impacted East Turkey Creek and a reference stream (Long Creek). Water quality was assessed during a 30 day exposure using passive samplers for both non-polar and polar effluent parameters. Metal loading in the system was assessed via fish tissue burdens in resident Pteronotropis hypseleotris. Additionally, microarray analysis was performed on gonad and liver tissue from fathead minnows, Pimephales promelas, after 48-h exposures to water collected from the two creeks and brought into the laboratory. Gene expression changes were evident at the site below the influence of a wastewater spray field sited along East Turkey Creek, suggesting that anthropogenic compounds in the effluent waters may have affected both liver and testis function and could be related to account the general decrease in populations of the Okaloosa darter. Array hybridizations were performed using a single color design. Four biological replicates consisting of four different individuals were analyzed for each of the treatments (University of Florida control, and each of five sites). Site C was left out of subsequent analysis for publication, due to poor characterization of the site. Two Samples were left out of the normalization/analysis due to QC failure. Therefore, there are only 3 replicates of the "testis, site A water, exposed 48 h." and "liver, site E water, exposed 48 h." groups.
2010-08-11 | E-GEOD-23521 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Rivers containing effluents from water treatment plants are complex soups of compounds, ranging from pharmaceuticals to natural hormones. Male fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) were exposed for 3 weeks to effluent waters from the Metropolitan Wastewater Treatment Plant in St. Paul, MN. Fish were tested for their competitive nest holding behavior. Changes in vitellogenin were measured and these were correlated to changes in gene expression using a 22,000 gene microarray developed specifically for fathead minnows. Significant changes in gene expression were observed in both liver and gonad, which correlate to phenotypic changes of vitellogenin induction and reduced competitive behavior. We also compared by real-time PCR the expression changes in key genes related to steroid biosynthesis and metabolism in fish exposed to the effluent as well as in fish exposed to a model estrogen and a model androgen. While the gene expression signature from effluent-exposed fish shared some elements with estrogen and androgen signatures, overall it was different, underscoring the complexity of compounds present in sewage and their different modes of action.
2010-10-30 | GSE23490 | GEO
Project description:To determine the effects on the intestine gene expression of pathogen exposure to Enteromyxum leei. One fish group was exposed to E. leei-contaminated effluent (recipient group = R) . R fish (n= 66, average weight = 134 g) were placed in two replicated 200L fibre-glass tanks which were set to receive exclusively the effluent water from another tank containing 24 infected (donors = D; average weight = 127.3 g; prevalence of infection = 54%) gilthead sea bream. The D to R fish ratio was 0.8. Other 66 naïve fish were allocated in two replicated tanks (control group = CTRL) under the same conditions, but without receiving contaminated effluent. Over the course of the study, day length followed natural changes and water was heated in order to keep temperature always above 18ºC, the range was 18-23 ºC. Water was 5 µm-filtered and UV irradiated, and salinity was 37.5‰. Water flow was 10L/min and oxygen content of outlet water remained higher than 85%saturation. All fish were fed daily a commercial dry pellet diet at about 1% of body weight. Disease signs and daily mortalities were recorded throughout the experiments. The parasitic status of dead fish was checked by microscopic examination of fresh intestinal scrapings. Fish were sampled after 113 days post exposure (p.e.). Feeding was stopped one day prior to the sampling to ensure that the digestive tract was empty. Head kidney and posterior intestine were rapidly excised, frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored at -80 °C until RNA extraction and analysis. Keywords: Treated/Untreated, confinement, cortisol, stress response, time course, microarray
2010-03-25 | GSE19646 | GEO
Project description:Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluent-dominated streams provide critical habitat for aquatic and terrestrial organisms but also continually expose them to complex mixtures of pharmaceuticals that can potentially impair growth, behavior, and reproduction. Currently, few biomarkers are available that relate to pharmaceutical-specific mechanisms of action. In the experiment reported in this paper, zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos at two developmental stages were exposed to water samples from three sampling sites (0.1 km upstream of the outfall, at the effluent outfall, and 0.1 km below the outfall) during base-flow conditions from two months (January and May) of a temperate-region effluent-dominated stream containing a complex mixture of pharmaceuticals and other contaminants of emerging concern. RNA-sequencing identified potential biological impacts and biomarkers of WWTP effluent exposure that extend past traditional markers of endocrine disruption. Transcriptomics revealed changes to a wide range of biological functions and pathways including cardiac, neurological, visual, metabolic, and signaling pathways. These transcriptomic changes varied by developmental stage and displayed sensitivity to variable chemical composition and concentration of effluent, thus indicating a need for stage-specific biomarkers. Some transcripts are known to be associated with genes related to pharmaceuticals that were present in the collected samples. Although traditional biomarkers of endocrine disruption were not enriched in either month, a high estrogenicity signal was detected upstream in May and implicates the presence of unidentified chemical inputs not captured by the targeted chemical analysis. This work reveals associations between bioeffects of exposure, stage of development, and the composition of chemical mixtures in effluent-dominated surface water. The work underscores the importance of measuring effects beyond the endocrine system when assessing the impact of bioactive chemicals in WWTP effluent and identifies a need for non-targeted chemical analysis when bioeffects are not explained by the targeted analysis.
2023-08-01 | GSE179335 | GEO
Project description:To determine the effects on the intestine gene expression of pathogen exposure to Enteromyxum leei. One fish group was exposed to E. leei-contaminated effluent (recipient group = R) . R fish (n= 66, average weight = 134 g) were placed in two replicated 200L fibre-glass tanks which were set to receive exclusively the effluent water from another tank containing 24 infected (donors = D; average weight = 127.3 g; prevalence of infection = 54%) gilthead sea bream. The D to R fish ratio was 0.8. Other 66 naïve fish were allocated in two replicated tanks (control group = CTRL) under the same conditions, but without receiving contaminated effluent. Over the course of the study, day length followed natural changes and water was heated in order to keep temperature always above 18ºC, the range was 18-23 ºC. Water was 5 µm-filtered and UV irradiated, and salinity was 37.5â°. Water flow was 10L/min and oxygen content of outlet water remained higher than 85%saturation. All fish were fed daily a commercial dry pellet diet at about 1% of body weight. Disease signs and daily mortalities were recorded throughout the experiments. The parasitic status of dead fish was checked by microscopic examination of fresh intestinal scrapings. Fish were sampled after 113 days post exposure (p.e.). Feeding was stopped one day prior to the sampling to ensure that the digestive tract was empty. Head kidney and posterior intestine were rapidly excised, frozen in liquid nitrogen, and stored at -80 °C until RNA extraction and analysis. Keywords: Treated/Untreated, confinement, cortisol, stress response, time course, microarray 28 intestine samples - Twenty eight slides were hybridised using a reference design. Three groups (control, infected and non-infected) were compared using five individual fish in each group. Each sample was hybridised twice - the second being a dye-swap of the first.
2010-06-05 | E-GEOD-19646 | biostudies-arrayexpress