Project description:Screening has revealed that modern-day feeds used in Atlantic salmon aquaculture might contain trace amounts of agricultural pesticides. To reach slaughter size, salmon are produced in open net pens in the sea. Unconsumed feed pellets and undigested feces deposited beneath the net pens represent a source of contamination for marine organisms. To examine the impacts of long-term and continuous dietary exposure to an organophosphorus pesticide (OP) found in Atlantic salmon feed, we fed juvenile Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), an abundant species around North Atlantic fish farms, three concentrations (0.5, 4.2 and 23.2 mg/kg) of chlorpyrifos-methyl (CPM) for 30 days. Endpoints included liver and bile bioaccumulation, liver transcriptomics and metabolomics, as well as plasma cholinesterase activity, cortisol, liver 7-ethoxyresor-ufin-O-deethylase (EROD) activity and hypoxia tolerance. The results show that Atlantic cod can accumulate relatively high levels of CPM in the liver after continuous exposure, which is then metabolized and excreted via the bile. All three exposure concentrations led to significant inhibition of plasma cholinesterase activity, the primary target of CPM. Transcriptomics profiling pointed to effects on cholesterol and steroid biosynthesis. Metabolite profiling revealed that CPM induced responses reflecting detoxification by glutathione-S-transferase, inhibition of monoacylglycerol lipase, potential inhibition of carboxylesterase, and increased demand for ATP, followed by secondary inflammatory responses. A gradual hypoxia challenge test showed that all groups of exposed fish were less tolerant to low oxygen saturation than the controls. In conclusion, this study suggests that wild fish continuously feeding on leftover pellets near fish farms over time may be vulnerable to OPs.
Project description:Iron (Fe) and phosphorus (P) are essential nutrients with close geochemical association. They exist at low concentrations in surface waters and may be co-limiting resources for phytoplankton growth. However, the adaptive strategies of photosynthetic organisms to Fe/P co-limitation remain largely unknown. Here, we show that phosphorus deficiency increases the growth of Fe-limited cyanobacteria through a PhoB-mediated regulatory network. In addition to its well-recognized role in controlling phosphate homeostasis, PhoB regulates key metabolic processes crucial for Fe-limited cyanobacteria, including ROS detoxification and Fe uptake. Transcript abundances of PhoB-targeted genes are enriched in samples from the P-deplete ocean, and a conserved PhoB binding site is widely present in the promoters of the targets, suggesting that the strategy we discovered may be highly conserved. Our findings provide important molecular insights into the response of cyanobacteria to simultaneous Fe/P nutrient limitation and help in understanding how nutrient availability affects primary productivity in aquatic environments.
Project description:We found that cyanobacterial RNA polymerase possesses very efficient intrinsic proofreading ability. This ability allows model species of cyanobacteria, Synechocystis sp PCC 6803 to keep in vivo level of transcriptional mistakes close to that of E.coli.
Project description:We found that cyanobacterial RNA polymerase possesses very efficient intrinsic proofreading ability. This ability allows model species of cyanobacteria, Synechocystis sp PCC 6803 to keep in vivo level of transcriptional mistakes close to that of E.coli.
Project description:Despite a significant increase in genomic data, our knowledge of gene functions and their transcriptional responses to environmental stimuli remains limited. Here, we use the model keystone species Daphnia pulex to study environmental responses of genes in the context of their gene family history to better understand the relationship between genome structure and gene function in response to environmental stimuli. Daphnia were exposed to five different treatments, each consisting of a diet supplemented with one of five cyanobacterial species, and a control treatment consisting of a diet of only green algae. Differential gene expression profiles of Daphnia exposed to each of these five cyanobacterial species showed that genes with known functions are more likely to be shared by different expression profiles whereas genes specific to the lineage of Daphnia are more likely to be unique to a given expression profile. Furthermore, while only a small number of non-lineage specific genes was conserved across treatment type, there was a high degree of overlap in expression profiles at the functional level. The conservation of functional responses across the different cyanobacterial treatments can be attributed to the treatment specific expression of different paralogous genes within the same gene family. Comparison with available gene expression data in the literature suggests differences in nutritional composition in diets with cyanobacterial species compared to diets of green algae as a primary driver for cyanobacterial effects on Daphnia. We conclude that conserved functional responses in Daphnia across different cyanobacterial treatments are mediated through alternate regulation of paralogous gene families. Whole transcriptome dual color arrays were used to discover differentially expressed genes following sub-lethal exposure to five cyanobacteria in D. pulex. RNA was isolated from eight independent and concurrently replicated exposures of Daphnia to control and five cyanobacteria conditions. RNA was hybridized to microarrays using a standard, control vs. treated design that included dye swaps. Cyanobacteria were Anabaena (ANA), Aphanizomenon (Aph), Cylindrospermopsis (Cyl), Nodularia (Nod) and Oscillatoria (Osl).