PNNL

Abstract

The increased availability and use of DNA microarrays has allowed the characterization of gene expression patterns associated with different toxicants. An important question is whether toxicant induced changes in gene expression in fish are sufficiently diverse to allow for identification of specific modes of action and/or specific contaminants. In theory, each class of toxicant may generate a gene expression profile unique to its mode of toxic action. We exposed isogenic (cloned) rainbow trout Oncorhyncus mykiss, to sublethal levels of a series of model toxicants with varying modes of action, including ethynylestradiol (xeno-estrogen), trenbolone (anabolic steroid; model androgen), 2,2,4,4´tetrabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-47, thyroid active), diquat (oxidant stressor), chromium VI, and benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) for a period of 1-3 weeks. Following exposure, fish were euthanized, livers harvested and RNA extracted. Fluorescently labeled cDNA were generated and hybridized against a commercially available Atlantic Salmon / Trout array (GRASP project, University of Victoria) spotted with 16,000 cDNA’s. The slides were scanned to measure abundance of a given transcript in each sample relative to controls. Data were analyzed via Genespring (Silicon Genetics) to identify a list of up and down regulated genes, as well as to determine gene clustering patterns that can be used as “expression signatures”. Our analysis indicates each toxicant generated specific gene expression profiles. Most genes exhibiting altered expression responded to only one of the toxicants. Relatively few genes are co-expressed in multiple treatments. For example, BaP and Diquat, both of which exert toxicity via oxidative stress, up-regulated 28 of the same genes, of over 100 genes altered by ether treatment. Other genes associated with steroidogenesis, p450 and estrogen responsive genes appear to be useful for selectively identifying toxicant mode of in fish, suggesting a link between gene expression profile and mode of toxic action. Our array results showed good agreement with q RT PCR, which demonstrates that the arrays are a robust measure of gene expression. The specificity of the gene expression profile in response to a model toxicant, the link between genes upregulated and mode of toxic action, and the consistency between array and qPCR results all suggest that cDNA microarrays have the potential to screen environmental contaminants for biomarkers and mode of toxic action.