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Lead exposure induced transgenerational developmental neurotoxicity by altering genome methylation in Drosophila

ABSTRACT: Heavy metal toxicity is a worldwide health problem. Lead exposure is of particular concern due to the adverse effects of low concentrations on cognitive development in children. Although the mechanism of lead neurotoxicity has been well studied, the analysis and molecular mechanism of the transgenerational effects of lead exposure-induced neurotoxicity are lacking. To address this, Drosophila, a powerful developmental animal model, was exposed to lead acetate. We found that Pb exposure during the developmental stage affected the neurodevelopment of F0 fruit flies, resulting in a loss of the correlation between the motor terminal area and muscle fiber area and the increased frequency of β-lobe midline crossing phenotype in Mushroom bodies. We also found that Pb exposure led to an increase in BRP expression, suggesting an increase in synaptic vesicle release sites and a decrease in synaptic vesicle protein SYN expression in F0 generation. This explained the results of our electrophysiological data that Pb exposure led to an increase in the amplitude of evoked excitatory junctional potential (EJP) and an increase in the frequency of spontaneous excitatory junctional potential (mEJP). Our results further confirmed that the developmental neurotoxicity of parental Pb exposure has a transgenerational effect. Neurodevelopmental defects, abnormalities in synaptic function, and repetitive behavior also were observed in the F3 offspring of F0 exposed to lead. Our Medip-seq analysis showed that Pb exposure altered the DNA methylation levels of many neurodevelopmentally associated genes (eg, hppy, nrg, baz, and spn) in the F3 offspring of the F0 generation with Pb exposure. Our findings suggest that epigenetic mechanisms may underlie the transgenerational inheritance of acquired phenotypic traits resulting from exposure to environmental factors.

ORGANISM(S): Drosophila melanogaster

PROVIDER: GSE249281 | GEO | 2023/12/09

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Environmental compounds including fungicides, plastics, pesticides, dioxin and hydrocarbons can promote the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of adult-onset disease in future generation progeny following ancestral exposure during the critical period of fetal gonadal sex determination. This study examined the actions of the pesticide methoxychlor to promote the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of adult-onset disease and associated differential DNA methylation regions (i.e. epimutations) in sperm. Gestating F0 generation female rats were transiently exposed to methoxychlor during fetal gonadal development (gestation days 8 to 14) and then adult-onset disease was evaluated in adult F1 and F3 (great-grand offspring) generation progeny for control (vehicle exposed) and methoxychlor lineage offspring. There were increases in the incidence of kidney disease, ovary disease, and obesity in the methoxychlor lineage animals. In females and males the incidence of disease increased in both the F1 and the F3 generations and the incidence of multiple disease increased in the F3 generation. There was increased disease incidence in F4 generation reverse outcross (female) offspring indicating disease transmission was primarily transmitted through the female germline. Analysis of the F3 generation sperm epigenome of the methoxychlor lineage males identified differentially DNA methylated regions (DMR) termed epimutations in a genome-wide gene promoters analysis. These epimutations were found to be methoxychlor exposure specific in comparison with other exposure specific sperm epimutation signatures. Observations indicate that the pesticide methoxychlor has the potential to promote the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of disease and the sperm epimutations appear to provide exposure specific epigenetic biomarkers for transgenerational disease and ancestral environmental exposures. Methylated sperm DNA was isolated from rats ancestrally exposed to methoxychlor. Three independent samples from each treatment group were obtained. Differential DNA methylation between treatment groups was determined using Nimblegen microarrays. Treated samples were paired with control samples and hybridized together on arrays, resulting in three arrays for the treatment.