Transcriptional profile of zebrafish eyes after exposure to 200 ug/L Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA)
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Vertebrate eye devlopment is partially regulated by thyroid hormones. TBBPA is a chemical that interacts with thyroid receptors. We investigated the effects of TBBPA on eye development of zebrafish. We expected TBBPA exposure to cause transcriptional changes of visual-system-related genes, which find their phenotypic anchoring in eye malformations and dysfunction, as observed in our previous studies. Additionally, the reversibility of effects after recovery in clean water for three days was investigated.
Project description:Vertebrate eye devlopment is partially regulated by thyroid hormones. Propylthiouracyl is a pharmaceutical that lowers thyroid hormone levels. We investigated the effects of PTU on eye development of zebrafish. We expected PTU exposure to cause transcriptional changes of visual-system-related genes, which find their phenotypic anchoring in eye malformations and dysfunction, as observed in our previous studies. Additionally, the reversibility of effects after recovery in clean water for three days was investigated.
Project description:3,3’,5.5’-Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) is a widely used brominated flame-retardant utilized in the production of electronic devices and plastic paints. The objective of this study is to use zebrafish as a model and determine the effects of TBBPA exposure on early embryogenesis. We initiated TBBPA exposures (0, 10, 20 and 40μM) at 0.75 h post fertilization (hpf) and monitored early developmental events such as cleavage, blastula and epiboly that encompass maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT) and zygotic genome activation (ZGA). Our data revealed that TBBPA exposures induced onset of developmental delays by 3 hpf (blastula). By 5.5 hpf (epiboly), TBBPA-exposed (10-20 μM) embryos showed concentration-dependent developmental lag by up to 3 stages or 100% mortality at 40 μM. Interestingly, while continued 0.75- 48 hpf TBBPA exposures (10 μM) led to severely deformed embryos, replacing exposure solution with chemical-free media at 6 hpf mitigated this effect, with 100% normal embryos at 48 hpf. To examine the genetic basis of TBBPA-induced delays, we conducted mRNA-sequencing on embryos exposed to 0 or 40 μM TBBPA from 0.75 hpf to 2, 3.5 or 4.5 hpf. Read count data showed that while TBBPA exposures had no overall impacts on maternal or maternal-zygotic genes, collective read counts for zygotically activated genes were lower in TBBPA treatment at 4.5 hpf compared to time-matched controls, suggesting that TBBPA delays ZGA. Gene ontology assessments for both time- and stage-matched differentially expressed genes revealed TBBPA-induced inhibition of chromatin assembly- a process regulated by histone modifications. Since acetylation is the primary histone modification system operant during early ZGA, we hypothesized that TBBPA inhibits histone acetylation, resulting in lack of open chromatin within promoters of zygotic genes and delaying ZGA. Therefore, we co-exposed embryos to 20 μM TBBPA and 100 μM N-(4-Chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-2-ethoxybenzamide (CTB) -a histone acetyltransferase activator that promotes histone acetylation- and showed that TBBPA-CTB co-exposures from 0.75- 3 hpf significantly reversed TBBPA-only developmental delays, suggesting that TBBPA-induced phenotypes are indeed driven by repression of histone acetylation. Collectively, our work demonstrates that TBBPA disrupts ZGA and early developmental morphology, potentially by inhibiting histone acetylation. Future studies will focus on mechanisms of TBBPA-induced chromatin modifications.
Project description:We evaluated the hepatic developmental toxicity of TBBPA/TBBPS/TCBPA with a human embryonic stem cells (hESC) system. We found that TBBPA/TBBPS/TCBPA might adversely affect human hepatocyte-like cells specification from hESCs via mainly impairing definitive endoderm specifications, suggesting the early stages of embryonic development are susceptible to the three compounds.
Project description:Halogenated flame retardants (HFRs) Tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), Tetrabromobisphenol S (TBBPS) and Tetrachlorobisphenol (TCBPA) are wildly applied in manufacturing industry to improve the fire safety of the products. Recent reports demonstrated that TBBPA, TBBPS and TCBPA can be detected in pregnant women serum at nanomolar-level. Considering TBBPA have also been detected in the cord serum and the structural similarity of the 3 HFRs, it is necessary to pay attention to their development toxicity. Liver is the important detoxic organ but also target of TBBPA since it has been demonstrated that TBBPA exposure lead to increased liver weight in mouse and rat. So the developmental hepatic toxicity of the 3 HFRs were studied in this current research with the transcriptomic and human embryonic stem cells hepatic differentiation based toxicity evaluation system. A hepatic differentiation specific lineage development map and cell lineage - gene expression annotations were made and used for easily assessing the lineage alternations caused by toxicant treatment. Together with GO and KEGG analysis, this study mainly demonstrated that, the 3 HFRs have many common disruptive effect on hepatic differentiation, while only TCBPA significantly inhibited hepatic differentiation. The up-regulation of genes related to cell cycle and FGF10 signaling pathway at relatively late stage of hepatic differentiation indicates the proliferation of hepatoblasts were promoted by the 3 HFRs, likely via up-regulating the FGF10 signaling pathway. The proliferating promoting effect may partly explain why liver gain weight in rodents exposed to TBBPA.
Project description:We use a larval zebrafish model to assess the transcriptomic alterations caused by sub-phenotypic concentrations of two endocrine disrupting drugs: BPA and TBBPA.
Project description:The aim of this study was to identify TBBPA-degrading organisms in a complex microbial community by a metagenome-based functional metaproteomic approach, using protein-based stable isotope probing (protein-SIP). Firstly, the degradation kinetics were evaluated in order to simulate the decrease of residual mass of the labelled compound based on experimental data. In sequence, a metagenome was generated, and biomass was collected in different time-points for protein-SIP in incubations with 13C-TBBPA. This approach allowed for the identification organisms assimilating labelled carbon from the cometabolic degradation of a micropollutant.