Project description:Classical ecotoxicological test and high-throughput molecular tools (microarray) were conducted on C. elegans to assess the effectiveness and ecosafety of a nanoremediation strategy applied to a highly polluted soil environment with heavy metals (HMs). We stablished a profiled gene expression in C. elegans exposed to the polluted soil, treated and untreated with nZVI. The results obtained showed that the percentage of differentially expressed genes decreased with the exposure time to nZVI. The expression profile of genes associated with stress response, metal toxicity, proteolysis, immune response, and cuticle development resulted affected. At short term, when a more effective HMs immobilization has occurred genes related to specific heavy metal detoxification mechanisms or to response to metal stress, were down regulated. After longer exposure time, we found decreased effectiveness of nZVI and increased HMs toxicity, whereas the transcriptional oxidative and metal-induced responses were attenuated.
Project description:Comparison of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) contaminated soils from Spain with a community-specific microarray. These results are being submitted for publication and represent the first use of microarrays for analysis of soil DNA and the first community-specific microarray design. Keywords: other
Project description:Heavy metals are essential integral parts of cells and environmental toxicants, whose deregulation is associated with severe cellular dysfunction and various diseases. The Hippo pathway plays a critical role in organ size control and cancer development. In this study, we use RNA-Seq to investigate the role of the Hippo pathway in regulating heavy metal response gene transcription. Specifically, the difference of transcriptional profiles between the wild-type and the Hippo pathway kinases LATS1/2-deficient HEK293A cells was examined under control- and heavy metals zinc and cadimuim treated-conditions.
Project description:Comparison of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) contaminated soils from Spain with a community-specific microarray. These results are being submitted for publication and represent the first use of microarrays for analysis of soil DNA and the first community-specific microarray design. Keywords: other