Grupo de Biología y Toxicología Ambiental, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, UNED, Senda del Rey 9, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Aquat Toxicol. 2012 Apr;110-111:84-90. doi: 10.1016/j.aquatox.2011.12.013. Epub 2012 Jan 5.
Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) represent an important transcriptional output of eukaryotic genomes. In addition to their functional relevance as housekeeping and regulatory elements, recent studies have suggested their involvement in rather unexpected cellular functions. The aim of this work was to analyse the transcriptional behaviour of non-coding RNAs in the toxic response to pollutants in Chironomus riparius, a reference organism in aquatic toxicology. Three well-characterized long non-coding sequences were studied: telomeric repeats, Cla repetitive elements and the SINE CTRT1. Transcription levels were evaluated by RT-PCR after 24-h exposures to three current aquatic contaminants: bisphenol A (BPA), benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP) and the heavy metal cadmium (Cd). Upregulation of telomeric transcripts was found after BPA treatments. Moreover, BPA significantly activated Cla transcription, which also appeared to be increased by cadmium, whereas BBP did not affect the transcription levels of these sequences. Transcription of SINE CTRT1 was not altered by any of the chemicals tested. These data are discussed in the light of previous studies that have shown a response by long ncRNAS (lncRNAs) to cellular stressors, indicating a relationship with environmental stimuli. Our results demonstrated for the first time the ability of bisphenol A to activate non-coding sequences mainly located at telomeres and centromeres. Overall, this study provides evidence that xenobiotics can induce specific responses in ncRNAs derived from repetitive sequences that could be relevant in the toxic response, and also suggests that ncRNAs could represent a novel class of potential biomarkers in toxicological assessment.
非编码 RNA（ncRNAs）是真核生物基因组的重要转录产物。除了作为管家和调节元件的功能相关性外，最近的研究表明它们参与了相当出乎意料的细胞功能。本工作的目的是分析在摇蚊对污染物的毒性反应中非编码 RNA 的转录行为，摇蚊是水生毒理学的参考生物。研究了三个特征明确的长非编码序列：端粒重复序列、Cla 重复元件和 SINE CTRT1。通过 RT-PCR 评估暴露于三种当前水生污染物 24 小时后的转录水平：双酚 A（BPA）、丁基苄基邻苯二甲酸酯（BBP）和重金属镉（Cd）。BPA 处理后发现端粒转录物上调。此外，BPA 显著激活 Cla 转录，镉似乎也增加了 Cla 转录，而 BBP 不影响这些序列的转录水平。SINE CTRT1 的转录不受测试的任何化学物质的影响。这些数据是根据先前的研究进行讨论的，这些研究表明长 ncRNA（lncRNAs）对细胞应激的反应，表明与环境刺激有关。我们的结果首次证明了双酚 A 激活主要位于端粒和着丝粒的非编码序列的能力。总的来说，这项研究提供了证据，表明外源性物质可以诱导重复序列衍生的 ncRNA 产生特定反应，这可能与毒性反应有关，还表明 ncRNA 可能代表毒理学评估中一类新的潜在生物标志物。
