Project description:Understanding the toxicity of Portuguese man-of-war, Physalia utriculus, is of paramount importance, given its significant ecological role and potential threats to human health and other organisms. To investigate the composition of the toxins or venom of P. utriculus, we then conducted a comprehensive proteomic analysis of the tentacular palpons to identify the toxic protein present in P. utriculus.
Project description:Omics approaches are broadly used to explore endocrine and toxicity-related pathways and functions. Nevertheless, there is still a significant gap in knowledge in terms of understanding the endocrine system and its numerous connections and intricate feedback loops, especially in non-model organisms. The main purpose of this analysis was to generate tissue-specific omics data in order to support future aquatic ecotoxicogenomic and endocrine-related studies as well as to improve our understanding of the fathead minnow as an ecological model.
Project description:This project aims to study the role played by small non-coding RNAs in the response of aquatic organisms to the presence of micropollutants in the environment. MiRNA were purified from Eels (Anguilla anguilla) sampled from two sites along the Gironde aquatic system with contrasted pollution profiles.
Project description:Changing global climates present threats to aquatic ecosystems with events such as heatwaves and prolonged increased temperatures altering habitats and affecting species survival. Aquatic organisms are particularly vulnerable to these elevated temperatures often due to a lack of suitable migration routes. A decrease in population abundance and survival in species occupying lower trophic levels may have cascading effects on the health of an ecosystem. In this study, we investigated the fitness (fecundity) and transcriptional response of Daphnia pulex, a common grazer in lentic freshwater systems, to sublethal temperature stress. D. pulex were exposed to control (20℃) and elevated sublethal (25℃) temperature to simulate an increased water temperature from a mild heat wave for 168 hours. Our findings indicate a dynamic transcriptional response to elevated temperatures. Notably, differential gene expression between the control and temperature-elevated treatment increased throughout the experiment with a three-fold increase in counts of DEGs at 168 hours as compared to 96 hours. D. pulex within the experimental treatment had higher mean cumulative offspring produced compared to the control treatment. Given D. pulex’s role as a foundational species in aquatic food webs, the observed transcriptional response provides insight into the potential for both plastic and adaptive responses in the face of environmental change.
Project description:This work describes the initial development of an omics based assay using 48Hr Pimephales promelas (FHM) larvae for identifying aquatic exposures to four pyrethroids (permethrin, cypermethrin, esfenvalerate and bifenthrin). Gene expression classifiers were developed using the random forest algorithm for each exposure and evaluated first by cross-validation using hold out organisms from the same exposure experiment and then against test sets of each pyrethroid from separate exposure experiments. Bifenthrin exposed organisms generated the highest quality classifier, demonstrating an empirical Area Under the Curve (eAUC) of 0.97 when tested against bifenthrin exposed organisms from other exposure experiments and 0.91 against organisms exposed to any of the pyrethroids. Additionally, the bifenthrin classifier was able to successfully classify organisms from all other pyrethroid exposures at multiple concentrations, suggesting a potential utility for detecting cumulative exposures. Considerable run-to-run variability was observed both in exposure concentrations and molecular responses of exposed fish across exposure experiments. The application of a calibration step in analysis successfully corrected this, resulting in a significantly improved classifier. Classifier evaluation suggested the importance of considering a number of aspects of experimental design when developing an expression based tool for general use in ecological monitoring and risk assessment, such as the inclusion of multiple experimental runs and high replicate numbers.
Project description:The normal growth of Nelumbo nucifera, a widely planted aquatic crop in Asia, was severely ruined by replant disease. To investigate changes of transcripts in response to replant disease, transcriptomic analyses were performed by comparing seedings of first-year planting (FP) and consecutive planting (CP). 9810 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified between FP and CP. Based on the biological function of these target genes, the signal pathway of consecutive monoculture was illustrated in N.nucifera. The experiments aimed to provide data for unveiling the molecular characteristics of replant disease, and explore our understanding of replant disease in aquatic botony.
Project description:<p>Currently, significant progress has been made in the management of black-odor water in China. However, some of the water bodies remain at risk of reverting to black and odorous conditions. The mechanisms for rebuilding and sustaining a healthy aquatic ecosystem after the remediation of black-odor water are still unclear. Therefore, this study focuses on the technical approach of 'functional biological screening - biosynthesis of symbiotic organisms - evaluation of remediation efficiency. Using cattail (Typha orientalis) and phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) as target organisms, this study optimized the composition and concentration of biological substrate materials to develop a composite ligand with functional organisms at its core. This ligand can transform and remove phosphates from black and odorous water bodies while ensuring the establishment and growth of aquatic plant communities. Our research provides technical support for the ecological restoration of black and odorous water bodies. </p>
Project description:The hypoxia frequently occurs in natural aquatic systems and aquaculture environment due to the natural reasons and human factors such as extreme climate, high density farming, environmental pollution and global warming, which have gradually become a huge threat to aquatic ecosystem functions and aquatic organism survival, causing serious ecological damage and enormous economic losses. Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), as a hypoxia-sensitive fish species, is a good model to study hypoxia stress. The molecular regulation and oxidative stress of rainbow trout still remains unknown in response to environmental hypoxia and reoxygenation stress. In this study, the transcriptome and biochemical indexes of rainbow trout liver in response to hypoxia for different durations were analyzed to highlight the changes in the molecular regulation and oxidative stress.
Project description:Microalgae play important ecological roles and serve as useful models for assessing impacts of environmental contaminants on lower trophic aquatic organisms. Sertraline, a commonly prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) found in urban waters, has been observed to induce chlorosis in Raphidocelis subcapitata close to environmentally relevant concentrations. This study estimated potentially hazardous concentrations of sertraline hydrochloride by deriving transcriptomic and metabolomic points of departure (tPODs and mPODs) below which chronic adverse effects would not be expected. Additionally, an Adverse Outcome Pathway describing the mechanism by which sertraline hydrochloride impacted R. subcapitata was proposed using a multi-omics approach. The mPOD derived from nontargeted metabolomics was comparable to the tPOD (455 µg/L vs 690 µg/L) and annotated dysregulated metabolites along with reduced photosynthetic capability indicated that uncoupling of the cyclic electron flow required for photosynthesis led to a reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst. This probable ROS burst altered cell membrane composition and downregulated genes associated with protoporphyrinogen IX and heme biosynthesis pathways. This research highlights the molecular mechanisms underlying pharmaceutical-induced chlorosis in a model microalgae species and demonstrates the utility of integrating metabolomics and transcriptomics for assessing the potential ecological risks of SSRIs.