Transcriptomic assessment of PCB-resistance in Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) embryos from a marine Superfund site
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ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Fundulus heteroclitus
PROVIDER: GSE86593 | GEO | 2016/09/09
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA342319
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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Project description:This study presents statistical analyses of gene expression in 5, 10 and 15 day post-fertilization (dpf) embryos of the teleost Fundulus heteroclitus treated with control vehicle (DMSO) or a potent non-ortho-PCB (PCB-126; 3,3’,4,4’,5-pentachlorobiphenyl). The embryos were from two populations: a clean, reference population (SC, Scorton Creek, MA USA) and a polluted Superfund population (N, New Bedford Harbor, MA USA). For each site, eggs from 8 females (~1100 total) were fertilized using minced testes from 5 males. After non-fertile eggs were culled, embryos were exposed to vehicle (DMSO; 0.1%) or PCB-126 (50 nM) in filtered seawater (salinity 25 part per thousand, 65 embros per 20 ml in glass petri dish) for 4 hr at 20º C. After exposure, the embryos were washed in filtered seawater and incubated at 20º C under a 14-h light, 10-h dark cycle. At 5-, 10-, and 15-dpf, embryos were collected as three pools of 20 embryos from each treatment group and flash frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80º C until used for RNA isolation. A loop design was used for the microarray hybridizations where each sample is hybridized to 2 arrays using both Cy3 and Cy5 labeled fluorophores. We used three loops in which each loop consisted of Cy3- and Cy5-labeled embryo aRNAs from 12 samples: one sample from each population-treatment-time combination. Within a population-treatment-time, embryos were randomly assigned to one of the three loops. In total, 36 embryos were hybridized to 36 microarrays. The loops formed were SC5C→ SC5P → NBH5C→ NBH5P →SC10C→ SC10P→ NBH10C→ NBH10P → SC15C→ SC15P → NBH15C → NBH15P → SC5C, where each arrow represents a separate hybridization (array) with the biological sample at the base of the arrow labeled with Cy3 and the biological sample at the head of the arrow labeled with Cy5. SC represents the Scorton Creek, Sandwich, MA population (reference), NBH represents the New Bedford Harbor, MA population, C represents control dose (DMSO), P represents the PCB-126 dose, 5 represents 5 dpf, 10 represents 10 dpf and 15 represents 15 dpf.
2011-06-06 | E-GEOD-25245 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:This study presents statistical analyses of gene expression in 5, 10 and 15 day post-fertilization (dpf) embryos of the teleost Fundulus heteroclitus treated with control vehicle (DMSO) or a potent non-ortho-PCB (PCB-126; 3,3’,4,4’,5-pentachlorobiphenyl). The embryos were from two populations: a clean, reference population (SC, Scorton Creek, MA USA) and a polluted Superfund population (N, New Bedford Harbor, MA USA). For each site, eggs from 8 females (~1100 total) were fertilized using minced testes from 5 males. After non-fertile eggs were culled, embryos were exposed to vehicle (DMSO; 0.1%) or PCB-126 (50 nM) in filtered seawater (salinity 25 part per thousand, 65 embros per 20 ml in glass petri dish) for 4 hr at 20º C. After exposure, the embryos were washed in filtered seawater and incubated at 20º C under a 14-h light, 10-h dark cycle. At 5-, 10-, and 15-dpf, embryos were collected as three pools of 20 embryos from each treatment group and flash frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80º C until used for RNA isolation.
2011-06-06 | GSE25245 | GEO
Project description:The Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) is an ideal model species to study physiological and toxicological adaptations to stressors. Killifish inhabiting the PCB-contaminated Superfund site in New Bedford Harbor, MA (NBH) have evolved resistance to toxicity and activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) signaling pathway after exposure to PCBs and other AHR agonists. Until recently, a lack of genomic information has limited efforts to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying environmental adaptation to stressors. The advent of high throughput sequencing has facilitated an unbiased assessment of coding as well as non-coding RNAs in any species of interest. Among non-coding RNAs, microRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of gene expression and play crucial roles in development and physiology. The objective of this study is to catalog the miRNAs in killifish and determine their expression patterns in the embryos from contaminated (NBH) and pristine (Scorton Creek, MA (SC)) sites. Embryos from NBH and SC were collected daily from 1 to 15 days post-fertilization and RNA from pooled samples from each site was sequenced using SOLiD sequencing. We obtained 7.5 and 11 million raw reads from pooled SC and NBH samples, respectively. Analysis of the sequencing data identified 216 conserved mature miRNA sequences that are expressed during development. Using the draft killifish genome, we retrieved the miRNA precursor sequences. Based on the capacity of these putative precursor sequences to form the characteristic hairpin loop (assessed using RNAfold), we identified 197 conserved miRNA sequences in the genome.
2015-07-20 | GSE70953 | GEO
Project description:Killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) inhabiting the New Bedford Harbor (NBH) Superfund Site have evolved resistance to the toxic and biochemical effects of non-ortho (dioxin-like) polychlorinated biphenyls (DL-PCBs) and other compounds that act via the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) signaling pathway. However, the majority of PCBs in NBH are ortho-substituted (non-DL) PCBs (o-PCBs), and the impacts of these o-PCBs on fish populations are not well understood. To determine whether the NBH killifish population has adapted to o-PCBs, we performed a series of experiments involving exposure to killifish embryos and adults from NBH and a reference site (Scorton Creek; SC) to 2,2’,4,4’,5,5’-hexachlorobiphenyl (PCB-153), a model o-PCB. PCB-153 was not acutely embryotoxic to developing F2 killifish embryos (SC or NBH) at concentrations up to 28 µM. RNA-seq showed that SC embryos exposed to PCB-153 (28 µM for 6 hr at 10 days post fertilization) had changes in the expression of genes involved in glucose homeostasis. However, NBH embryos were much less sensitive to these effects of PCB-153. When adult killifish from SC and NBH were exposed to PCB-153 (20 mg/kg) and sampled 3 days later for gene expression, many more genes were affected in forebrains of SC fish than in NBH fish, in a sex-specific manner. Together, these results demonstrate that NBH killifish have evolved reduced sensitivity to o-PCBs, suggesting complex adaptation to chemical mixtures at a Superfund site.
2018-06-16 | GSE115863 | GEO
Project description:Hypoxia in coastal waters is an increasing concern, with the frequency of hypoxic events rising because of climate change and human-driven impacts such as eutrophication. The Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus), an estuarine species known for its resilience to environmental stressors, provides a valuable model to investigate the physiological, transcriptional, and epigenetic mechanisms underlying adaptation. Some killifish populations, like those in New Bedford Harbor (NBH), Massachusetts, have evolved resistance to dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) due to chronic exposure. These populations offer a unique opportunity to investigate how toxicant resistance might influence responses to secondary stressors like hypoxia. The objective of this study is to characterize the impacts of evolved resistance to toxicants on the ability to cope with acute hypoxia. We compared hepatic gene expression and DNA methylation patterns in response to two levels of hypoxia in killifish from NBH and Scorton Creek (SC), a reference population from a relatively pristine environment. We hypothesized that NBH fish would exhibit altered molecular responses to hypoxia due to trade-offs associated with toxicant resistance. Our results revealed significant differences between the two populations. SC fish demonstrated a dose-dependent increase in gene expression in response to hypoxia, while NBH fish exhibited a muted transcriptional response to severe hypoxia, indicating potential impairment in their ability to cope with hypoxic stress. Interestingly, NBH fish showed significant DNA methylation changes in response to hypoxia, while SC fish did not exhibit notable epigenetic alterations. These findings suggest that toxicant-adapted killifish may face trade-offs in their response to additional environmental stressors, with potential consequences for their ability to survive in increasingly hypoxic coastal habitats. Further research is needed to elucidate the functional implications of these epigenetic modifications and their role in adaptive stress responses.
2024-10-02 | GSE278569 | GEO
Project description:Transcriptomic assessment of PCB-resistance in Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) embryos from a marine Superfund site
| PRJNA342319 | ENA
Project description:We used the mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) array we developed to test whether our arrays could be used to monitor the efficacy of remediation at an estuarine Superfund site. Shipyard Creek is a chromium-contaminated Superfund site in Charleston, SC undergoing remediation, therefore it provides a unique opportunity to study the efficacy of arrays as a molecular biomarker in of toxicant effects in mummichogs. Mummichogs were captured in Shipyard Creek in Charleston, SC prior to remediation (2000), after remediation began (2003), and as remediation further progressed (2005). Simultaneously, mummichogs were collected from a reference site at the Winyah-Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR). The hepatic gene expression pattern of fish captured at Shipyard Creek showed wide differences from the fish captured at NERR in 2000. As remediation progressed the gene expression pattern of fish captured at Shipyard Creek became increasingly similar to fish captured at NERR, and the number of genes differently expressed dropped from 22 to 4. The magnitude of differential gene expression of the individual genes also decreased during remediation. The recovering gene expression profile is associated with lower chromium bioavailability, demonstrated through significantly decreased body burden and sediment concentrations. For example, sediment concentrations at Shipyard Creek were 80-fold greater than NERR in 2000, 51-fold greater in 2003, and only 8-fold greater in 2005. However, hydraulic dredging in 2005 stirred up the sediments and increased body burden of chromium even though chromium sediment concentrations continued to drop. Therefore, the number of differentially expressed genes increased to 9. Overall, the data supports our hypothesis that arrays can be used to monitor site mitigation, as the number of genes differentially expressed mimics the body burden and also indicates when on-site remediation is increasing bioavailability. Keywords: Field site
2006-09-01 | GSE4212 | GEO
Project description:We used the mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) array we developed to test whether our arrays could be used to monitor the efficacy of remediation at an estuarine Superfund site. Shipyard Creek is a chromium-contaminated Superfund site in Charleston, SC undergoing remediation, therefore it provides a unique opportunity to study the efficacy of arrays as a molecular biomarker in of toxicant effects in mummichogs. Mummichogs were captured in Shipyard Creek in Charleston, SC prior to remediation (2000), after remediation began (2003), and as remediation further progressed (2005). Simultaneously, mummichogs were collected from a reference site at the Winyah-Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR). The hepatic gene expression pattern of fish captured at Shipyard Creek showed wide differences from the fish captured at NERR in 2000. As remediation progressed the gene expression pattern of fish captured at Shipyard Creek became increasingly similar to fish captured at NERR, and the number of genes differently expressed dropped from 22 to 4. The magnitude of differential gene expression of the individual genes also decreased during remediation. The recovering gene expression profile is associated with lower chromium bioavailability, demonstrated through significantly decreased body burden and sediment concentrations. For example, sediment concentrations at Shipyard Creek were 80-fold greater than NERR in 2000, 51-fold greater in 2003, and only 8-fold greater in 2005. However, hydraulic dredging in 2005 stirred up the sediments and increased body burden of chromium even though chromium sediment concentrations continued to drop. Therefore, the number of differentially expressed genes increased to 9. Overall, the data supports our hypothesis that arrays can be used to monitor site mitigation, as the number of genes differentially expressed mimics the body burden and also indicates when on-site remediation is increasing bioavailability. Keywords: Field site
2006-09-01 | GSE4211 | GEO
Project description:We used the mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus) array we developed to test whether our arrays could be used to monitor the efficacy of remediation at an estuarine Superfund site. Shipyard Creek is a chromium-contaminated Superfund site in Charleston, SC undergoing remediation, therefore it provides a unique opportunity to study the efficacy of arrays as a molecular biomarker in of toxicant effects in mummichogs. Mummichogs were captured in Shipyard Creek in Charleston, SC prior to remediation (2000), after remediation began (2003), and as remediation further progressed (2005). Simultaneously, mummichogs were collected from a reference site at the Winyah-Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR). The hepatic gene expression pattern of fish captured at Shipyard Creek showed wide differences from the fish captured at NERR in 2000. As remediation progressed the gene expression pattern of fish captured at Shipyard Creek became increasingly similar to fish captured at NERR, and the number of genes differently expressed dropped from 22 to 4. The magnitude of differential gene expression of the individual genes also decreased during remediation. The recovering gene expression profile is associated with lower chromium bioavailability, demonstrated through significantly decreased body burden and sediment concentrations. For example, sediment concentrations at Shipyard Creek were 80-fold greater than NERR in 2000, 51-fold greater in 2003, and only 8-fold greater in 2005. However, hydraulic dredging in 2005 stirred up the sediments and increased body burden of chromium even though chromium sediment concentrations continued to drop. Therefore, the number of differentially expressed genes increased to 9. Overall, the data supports our hypothesis that arrays can be used to monitor site mitigation, as the number of genes differentially expressed mimics the body burden and also indicates when on-site remediation is increasing bioavailability. Keywords: Field site
2006-09-01 | GSE4210 | GEO
Project description:Transcriptomic assessment of resistance to effects of an aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) agonist in embryos of Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) from a marine Superfund site
| PRJNA134661 | ENA