Project description:Perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) is a short-chain polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) that is measurable in fish tissues and environmental matrices. Previous studies suggest that there are adverse effects on animal and human health following exposure to PFBA, however the mechanisms underlying the toxicity are not well characterized. This study measured biological responses (developmental, transcriptome, and behavioral responses) of zebrafish (wild-type AB strain, Danio rerio) following exposure to a range of PFBA concentrations (0.1-100 µl/L). To further elucidate putative mechanisms related to locomotor abnormalities by PFBA, RNA-seq was conducted. These data shed new mechanistic light onto the sublethal effects of lesser studied short chain perfluorinated chemicals.
Project description:The fish gill is a multifunctional organ containing a variety of specialized cells including respiratory chemoreceptors, neuroepithelial cells (NECs). Although the structure, function and development of the gill have been studied extensively, transcriptomic profiling of individual gill cells is lacking. Using the 10x Genomics Chromium technology, we conducted a single transcriptomic study of cells from distal gill filament of ETvmat2:GFP zebrafish, acclimated to 14 days of normoxia and hypoxia. Overall, approximately 13,000 cells were sequenced with an average depth of 27,000 reads per cell. We identified 16 cell clusters in the gill, including NECs, neurons, pavement cells, endothelial cells and mitochondrion-rich cells. NECs were identified through expression of vmat2, encoding vesicular monoamine transporter, and showed highly differential expressions of tph1a, sv2, and mitochondrial proteins implicated in O2 sensing. Differential gene expression analysis showed a shift in transcriptome in NECs following 14 days of acclimation to hypoxia. This study presents a comprehensive cell atlas for the zebrafish gill and provides a framework for future investigations of molecular biology and physiology in gills.