Dataset Information

Evolutionary responses to crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by the copepod Eurytemora affinis.

ABSTRACT: The BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster was the most catastrophic offshore oil spill in U.S. history, yet we still have a poor understanding of how organisms could evolve in response to the toxic effects of crude oil. This study offers a rare analysis of how fitness-related traits could evolve rapidly in response to crude oil toxicity. We examined evolutionary responses of populations of the common copepod Eurytemora affinis residing in the Gulf of Mexico, by comparing crude oil tolerance of populations collected before versus after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010. In addition, we imposed laboratory selection for crude oil tolerance for ~8 generations, using an E. affinis population collected from before the oil spill. We found evolutionary increases in crude oil tolerance in the wild population following the oil spill, relative to the population collected before the oil spill. The post-oil spill population showed increased survival and rapid development time in the presence of crude oil. In contrast, evolutionary responses following laboratory selection were less clear; though, development time from metamorphosis to adult in the presence of crude oil did become more rapid after selection. We did find that the wild population, used in both experiments, harbored significant genetic variation in crude oil tolerance, upon which selection could act. Thus, our study indicated that crude oil tolerance could evolve, but perhaps not on the relatively short time scale of the laboratory selection experiment. This study contributes novel insights into evolutionary responses to crude oil, in directly examining fitness-related traits before and after an oil spill, and in observing evolutionary responses following laboratory selection.

SUBMITTER: Lee CE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5680418 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Evolutionary responses to crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by the copepod <i>Eurytemora affinis</i>.

Lee Carol Eunmi CE Remfert Jane Louise JL Opgenorth Taylor T Lee Kristin M KM Stanford Elizabeth E Connolly Joseph William JW Kim Jinwoo J Tomke Sarah S

Evolutionary applications 20170816 8

The BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster was the most catastrophic offshore oil spill in U.S. history, yet we still have a poor understanding of how organisms could evolve in response to the toxic effects of crude oil. This study offers a rare analysis of how fitness-related traits could evolve rapidly in response to crude oil toxicity. We examined evolutionary responses of populations of the common copepod <i>Eurytemora affinis</i> residing in the Gulf of Mexico, by comparing crude oil tolerance o ...[more]

PMID: 29151873

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Project description:UnlabelledThe Deepwater Horizon disaster was the largest marine oil spill in history, and total vertical exposure of oil to the water column suggests it could impact an enormous diversity of ecosystems. The most vulnerable organisms are those encountering these pollutants during their early life stages. Water-soluble components of crude oil and specific polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have been shown to cause defects in cardiovascular and craniofacial development in a variety of teleost species, but the developmental origins of these defects have yet to be determined. We have adopted zebrafish, Danio rerio, as a model to test whether water accumulated fractions (WAF) of the Deepwater Horizon oil could impact specific embryonic developmental processes. While not a native species to the Gulf waters, the developmental biology of zebrafish has been well characterized and makes it a powerful model system to reveal the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind Macondo crude toxicity.ResultsWAF of Macondo crude oil sampled during the oil spill was used to treat zebrafish throughout embryonic and larval development. Our results indicate that the Macondo crude oil causes a variety of significant defects in zebrafish embryogenesis, but these defects have specific developmental origins. WAF treatments caused defects in craniofacial development and circulatory function similar to previous reports, but we extend these results to show they are likely derived from an earlier defect in neural crest cell development. Moreover, we demonstrate that exposure to WAFs causes a variety of novel deformations in specific developmental processes, including programmed cell death, locomotor behavior, sensory and motor axon pathfinding, somitogenesis and muscle patterning. Interestingly, the severity of cell death and muscle phenotypes decreased over several months of repeated analysis, which was correlated with a rapid drop-off in the aromatic and alkane hydrocarbon components of the oil.ConclusionsWhether these teratogenic effects are unique to the oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or generalizable for most crude oil types remains to be determined. This work establishes a model for further investigation into the molecular mechanisms behind crude oil mediated deformations. In addition, due to the high conservation of genetic and cellular processes between zebrafish and other vertebrates, our work also provides a platform for more focused assessment of the impact that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has had on the early life stages of native fish species in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

Dataset Information

Evolutionary responses to crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by the copepod Eurytemora affinis.

Publications

Evolutionary responses to crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill by the copepod <i>Eurytemora affinis</i>.

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