Project description:Metals at high concentrations can exert toxic effects on microorganisms. It has been widely reported that lowering environmental pH reduces effects of cadmium toxicity in bacteria. Understanding the effects of pH-mediated cadmium toxicity on bacteria would be useful for minimizing cadmium toxicity in the environment and gaining insight into the interactions between organic and inorganic components of life. Growth curve analysis confirmed that cadmium was less toxic to Escherichia coli at pH 5 than at pH 7 in M9 minimal salts medium. To better understand the cellular mechanisms by which lowering pH decreases cadmium toxicity, we used DNA microarrays to characterize global gene expression patterns in E. coli in response to cadmium exposure at moderately acidic (5) and neutral (7) values of pH. Higher expression of several stress response genes including hdeA, otsA, and yjbJ at pH 5 after only 5 minutes was observed and may suggest that acidic pH more rapidly induces genes that confer cadmium resistance. Genes involved in transport were more highly expressed at pH 7 than at pH 5 in the presence of cadmium. Of the genes that showed an interaction between pH and cadmium effects, 46% encoded hypothetical proteins, which may have novel functions involved in mitigating cadmium toxicity. GROWTH CONDITIONS FOR MICROARRAY EXPERIMENTS: Two overnight cultures of E. coli K-12 were started in M9 medium. A 250 mL Erlenmeyer flask containing 100 mL of M9 medium was inoculated with 0.5 mL for each of the two overnight cultures, each of which was considered a biological replicate. The cultures were grown on a rotary shaker (200 rpm) at 37 °C until the contents of the flask reached an OD600 of 0.3 (mid-log phase of growth). Each culture was divided into four 25 mL aliquots, transferred to 50 mL conical tubes (Corning), and centrifuged at 2540 x g for 12 minutes. The supernatant was decanted, and the cells were resuspended in 25 mL of M9 medium at pH 7 or pH 5 in the presence or absence (two cultures of each) of 5.4 µM (1 µg/mL) total cadmium, added as CdCl2. The cultures were incubated at 25 °C for either 5 or 15 minutes with manual rotation of the flasks once per minute. After the appropriate amount of time, 15 mL of RNAProtect Bacteria Reagent (Qiagen) was added to each culture to immediately halt all metabolic processes. The solutions were vortexed, incubated at 25 °C for 5 minutes, and centrifuged for 12 minutes at 3750 x g. RNA was extracted from the cell pellets immediately following centrifugation. RNA EXTRACTION AND HYBRIDIZATION PROCEDURES: RNA was extracted and purified using a Masterpure RNA purification kit (Epicentre Technologies). The quantity and quality of the RNA samples were determined spectrophotometrically. Preparation of the cDNA, labeling with Cy3 and Cy5, and successive hybridizations were accomplished using a 3DNA Array 900MPX kit following the manufacturer’s protocols (Genisphere) with the following modifications. 3DNA reverse transcriptase enzyme (Genisphere # RT300320) rather than SuperScript II was added to 1 µg of RNA and 2 µL of a random primer (1 µg/µL). The final cDNA hybridization mix contained 29 µL 2X enhanced cDNA hybridization buffer rather than 2X SDS-based hybridization buffer or 2X formamide-based hybridization buffer. The cDNA mix was hybridized to a cDNA microarray printed by the Microarray and Proteomics Facility at the University of Alberta (Operon version 1.0 oligonucleotides). The arrays were scanned with a Versarray ChipReader (BioRad) with laser power at 75%, photomultiplier tube (PMT) sensitivity at 800 V, and detector gain at 1. DATA ANALYSIS: Each array directly compared transcription at pH 5 and pH 7 for a given cadmium treatment (0 or 5.4 µM cadmium) and exposure time. Dye swaps were performed for each biological replicate for each of the following treatments (8 total arrays): 5 minutes with cadmium exposure, 5 minutes without cadmium exposure, 15 minutes with cadmium exposure, and 15 minutes without cadmium exposure. The 0-minute exposure to cadmium treatment was obtained from the 5-minute microarray without cadmium exposure. Spot intensities and locations were determined using TIGR Spotfinder, Version 3.1.1. All subsequent analyses were performed using the ma-anova package in the open-source statistical software package, R (www.r-project.org), Version 2.4.1. The data were normalized using the regional lowess method. Following normalization the median expression values of genes represented in triplicate on each array were determined for each gene. A mixed model two-way ANOVA for the main fixed effects of pH, cadmium, and their interaction (array and spot were the random effects) were performed (using Type III F-tests) separately for each time point to identify genes for which pH and cadmium interacted to significantly affect expression (FDR-adjusted p ? 0.05).

Project description:Cadmium is a natural element that can accumulate to toxic levels in the environment leading to detrimental effects in animals and humans including kidney, liver and lung injuries. Using a transcriptomics approach, genes and cellular pathways affected by a low dose of cadmium were investigated. Adult largemouth bass were intraperitoneally injected with 20 Âµg/kg of cadmium chloride and microarray analyses were conducted in the liver and testis 48 hours after injection. Transcriptomics profiles identified in response to cadmium treatment were tissue-specific with the most differential expression changes found in the liver tissues, which also contained much higher levels of cadmium than the testes. Acute exposure to a low dose of cadmium induced oxidative stress response and oxidative damage pathways in the liver. The mRNA levels of antioxidants such as catalase increased and numerous transcripts related to DNA damage and DNA repair were significantly altered. Hepatic mRNA levels of metallothionein, a proposed marker of cadmium exposure, showed a small insignificant increase after 48 hours exposure. Carbohydrate metabolic pathways were also disrupted in cadmium-exposed fish with hepatic transcripts such as UDP-glucose pyrophosphorylase 2 and sorbitol dehydrogenase highly induced. Both tissues exhibited a disruption of steroid signalling pathways. In the testis, estrogen receptor beta and transcripts linked to cholesterol metabolism were suppressed. On the contrary, genes involved in cholesterol metabolism were highly increased in the liver including genes encoding for the rate limiting steroidogenic acute regulatory protein and the catalytic enzyme 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase. Integration of the transcriptomics data using functional enrichment analyses revealed a number of enriched gene networks associated with previously reported adverse outcomes of cadmium exposure such as liver toxicity and impaired reproduction. Adult largemouth bass (n=4 per treatment) were ip injected with a single dose of cadmium chloride (20 ug/kg) or a saline solution. After 48 hours, liver and testis were excised and differential gene expression profiles were examined.

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The protease DDI2 regulates NRF1-metallothionein pathway in response to Cadmium toxicity in the liver

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