Project description:Zebrafish (Danio rerio) were obtained from the Zebrafish Research Facility maintained in the Center for Environmental Biotechnology at the University of Tennessee. Fish husbandry, spawning, and experimental procedures were conducted with approval from the University of Tennessee Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (Protocol #1690-1007). Water for holding fish and conducting experiments (hereafter referred to as fish water) consisted of MilliQ water (Millipore, Bedford, MA) with ions added: 19 mg/L NaHCO3, 1 mg/L sea salt (Instant Ocean Synthetic Sea Salt, Mentor, OH), 10 mg/L CaSO4, 10 mg/L MgSO4, 2 mg/L KCl. Embryos were obtained by spawning adult fish with no history of contaminant exposure. Fertilization of embryos took place at the same time (Â± 15 min.), such that larvae used in experiments were of similar age at the time of exposure. All activities (maintenance of adult fish, spawning, and experiments) were conducted in an environmental chamber with a temperature of 27Â± 1 ÂºC and 14:10h light:dark photoperiod. Experiment Overall Design: At 72 h post-fertilization, zebrafish larvae were exposed to lyophilized Microcystis and purified MC-LR at concentrations of 100 and 1,000 Âµg/L. Controls consisted of zebrafish system water (negative control) and zebrafish system water containing 0.05% ethanol (vehicle control). Larvae from both control groups as well as 100 Âµg/L MC-LR, 1,000 Âµg/L MC-LR, and lyophilized Microcystis were exposed in groups of 50 with three replicates and were sacrificed after 96 hours for total RNA extraction and subsequent microarray analysis. All larvae were exposed in beakers containing 100 ml of solution. Experiment Overall Design: Water samples for microcystin analysis and water quality measurements were taken during the experiment, and mortality and behavioral observations were recorded at 24-hour intervals. Microcystin analysis was conducted by protein phosphatase inhibition assay. Measured concentrations of microcystin-LR were 140 Â± 12 SD (low concentration) and 1,703 Â± 71 SD (high concentration). The concentration of microcystin-LR in the lyophilized Microcystis treatment was 4.5 Âµg/L. Water quality parameters measured included dissolved oxygen (6.7 mg/L), pH (6.9), total alkalinity (36 mg/L as CaCO3), total hardness (18 mg/L as CaCO3), and ammonia (<0.2 mg/L). No significant mortality or behavioral changes in larvae were observed during the exposure.

Project description:Effects of bisphenol A (BPA) on ovarian transcript profiles as well as targeted endpoints with endocrine/reproductive relevance were examined in two fish species, fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) and zebrafish (Danio rerio), exposed in parallel using matched experimental designs. Four days of waterborne exposure to 10 µg BPA caused significant vitellogenin induction in both species. However, zebrafish were less sensitive to effects on hepatic gene expression and steroid production than fathead minnow and the magnitude of vitellogenin induction was more modest. The concentration-response at the ovarian transcriptome level was non-monotonic and violated assumptions that underlie proposed methods for estimating hazard thresholds from transcriptomic results. However, the non-monotonic profile was consistent among species and there were nominal similarities in the functions associated with the differentially expressed genes, suggesting potential activation of common pathway perturbation motifs in both species. Overall, the results provide an effective case study for considering the potential application of ecotoxicogenomics to ecological risk assessments and provide novel comparative data regarding effects of BPA in fish. Fish were exposed to 0, 0.01, 0.1, 1.0, 10, or 100 µg BPA/L delivered in a continuous flow (45 ml/min) of sand filtered, UV treated, Lake Superior Water, without the use of carrier solvents. The design employed six replicate tanks per treatment. Three of the replicates were loaded with three male and three female zebrafish per tank, while the remaining three replicates were loaded with three male and three female fathead minnows. Addition of fish to the exposure tanks was staggered by replicate such that all sampling could be completed within 60 min of the desired 96 h exposure duration. After 96 h of exposure, fish were anesthetized in a buffered solution of tricaine methanesulfonate (MS-222; Finquel; Argent, Redmond, WA, USA) and weighed. Blood was collected from the caudal vasculature using microhematocrit tubes, centrifuged to separate the plasma, and plasma was stored at -80oC until analyzed. Liver, gonad, and brain tissues (including pituitary gland) were snap frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80oC until extracted. Total RNA was isolated from ovary tissue of both fathead minnow and zebrafish using RNeasy kits (Qiagen, Valencia, CA, USA). RNA quality was evaluated using an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer (Agilent, Wilmington, DE, USA) and RNA was quantified spectrophotometrically (Nanodrop). Total RNA samples were stored at -80oC until used for microarray analyses. Ovarian transcripts from 32 fathead minnows (n=5 per treatment, except for control and 1.0 µg BPA/L, n=6) were analyzed using a custom, 15,000 gene microarray (GEO Platform Accession GPL9248) purchased from Agilent Technologies (Palo Alto, CA, USA). Ovarian transcripts from 34 zebrafish (n=6 per treatment, except 0.01 and 0.1 µg BPA/L, n=5) were analyzed using a commercial 44,000 feature microarray (Agilent design 019161; GEO Platform Accession GPL6457). The same hybridization and scanning procedures were used for both platforms. Briefly, microarrays were hybridized following the manufacturer’s guidelines for One-Color Microarray-Based Gene Expression Analysis (version 5.7; Agilent). Hybridizations were conducted with 1 µg of total RNA. Complementary DNA synthesis, cRNA labeling, amplification, and hybridizations were performed following the manufacturer’s kits and protocols (Quick Amp labeling kit; Agilent). Scanning was conducted at 5 µm resolution using an Axon GenePix® 4000B Microarray Scanner (Molecular Devices Inc., Concord, Ontario, Canada). Data were extracted from microarray array images using Agilent Feature Extraction Software (Agilent; Palo Alto, CA, USA).

Project description:Ectothermic vertebrates are different from mammals that are sensitive to hypothermia and they have to maintain core temperature for survival. Why and how ectothermic animals can survive, grow and reproduce in low temperature have been for a long time a scientifically challenging and important inquiry to biologists. We used a microarray to profile the gill transcriptome in zebrafish (Danio rerio) after exposure to low temperature. Adult zebrafish were acclimated to a low temperature of 12 ï°C for 1 (1-d) and 30 d (30-d), and the gill transcriptome was compared to wild types by oligonucleotide microarray hybridization. Results showed 11 and 22 transcripts were found to be upregulated by low-temperature treatment for 1-d and 30-d respectively, while 56 and 70 transcrips were downregulated. The gill transcriptome profiles revealed that ionoregulation-related gene was highly upregulated in cold-acclimated zebrafish. This observation encouraged us to investigate the role of ionoregulatory genes in zebrafish gills during cold acclimation. Cold acclimation caused upregulation of genes that are essential for ionocyte specification, differentiation, ionoregulation, and acid/base balance, and also increased the numbers of cells expressing these genes. mRNA expression of epithelial Ca2+ channel (ECaC), one of these genes, was increased in parallel with the level of Ca2+ influx, revealing a functional compensation after long-term acclimation to cold. Phospho-histone H3 and TUNEL staining showed that the cell turnover rate was retarded in cold-acclimated gills. These results suggest that gills may sustain their functions by yielding mature ionocytes from preexisting undifferentiated progenitors in low-temperature environments. The AB strain of zebrafish (D. rerio) was originally obtained from the University of Oregon, and were kept in the zebrafish stock center at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. Fish were reared in local tap water at 28 ï°C and a photoperiod regime of 14-h L/10-h D. Adult zebrafish were acclimated to 12 ï°C with a gradually reduced temperature at a gradient of 4 ï°C/h in order to prevent temperature shock and reduce mortality. After 30 d of acclimation, surviving (over an 80% survival rate) fish appeared to be feeding and behaving normally compared with control fish. The experimental protocols were approved by the Academia Sinica Institutional Animal Care and Utilization Committee (approval no. RFiZOOHP2006083). After the low-temperature treatment, gill tissues dissected from 6 individuals were pooled as a sample and then homogenized in 5 ml Trizol reagent (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA). Thirty six individuals (18 for low-temperature treatment and 18 for control) were sacrificed for each microarray hybridization experiment, and another 60 individuals were used for quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. After chloroform extraction, RNA precipitation and ethanol washing, the RNA samples were purified and treated with DNase1 to remove the genomic DNA by using RNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen, Huntsville, Alabama). The quantity and quality of total RNA were assessed by spectrophotometry and agarose gel electrophoresis, respectively. The commercial zebrafish 14K oligonucleotides set (MWG Biotech AG, Ebersbach, Germany) were obtained and were printed on UltraGAPS Coated slide (Corning, New York, NY ) with use of the OmniGrid 100 microarrayer (Genomic Solutions, Ann Arbor, MI) according to the manufactureâs instructions. The 14,067 oligonucleotides represent 9666 genes (7009 singlet genes and 2657 redundant genes), and the redundancy of this chip is 31 %. The detailed description of the oligonucleotides information can be obtained on the Ocimun Biosolution website (http://www.ocimumbio.com/web/default.asp). cDNA probes were synthesized by reverse transcription of 20 Î¼g total RNA using a SuperScript indirect cDNA labeling system (Invitrogen) and were labeled with Cy5 (cold treatment groups) and Cy3 (control groups)(Amersham Bioscience, Buckinghamshire, UK) , respectively. The zebrafish 14K OciChip array chip was pretreated with 1% bovine serum albumin (BSA) (fraction V), 4x saline-sodium citrate (SSC), and 1% sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS) at 42 Â°C for 45 min, and then hybridized overnight in a cocktail containing 5x Denhardt's solution, 6x SSC, 0.5% SDS, 50% formamide, 50 mM sodium phosphate, and 2 Âµg/Âµl yeast tRNA. Slides were washed with 2x SSC and 0.1% SDS (5 min), 1x SSC and 0.1% SDS (5 min), 0.5x SSC (5 min), and twice with 0.1x SSC (2 min each). Scanning was performed with a Genepix scanner (Molecular Devices, Sunnyvale, CA). The acquired images were analyzed using ScanArray Express 3.0 (PerkinElmer, Waltham, MA) and Genespring (Aglient Technologies, Foster City, CA) software. The measurements of spots were filtered by flags, and the lowest normalization was performed after subtraction of the median background. To assess the differential expressions of genes, we identified the ratio of Cy5/Cy3 intensity > 2 or < 0.5. Each experiment contained 3 biological replicates (including 1 dye swap) with different samples, and the differentially expressed genes were selected from those with at least 2 of 3 significant signals (ratio > 2 or < 0.5).

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Transcriptome profiling of zebrafish brain under hypoxia

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