Erturk Filiz Aygun, Aydin Murat, Sigmaz Burcu, Taspinar M Sinan, Arslan Esra, Agar Guleray, Yagci Semra
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Atatürk University, 25240, Erzurum, Turkey.
Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Ataturk University, 25240, Erzurum, Turkey.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2015 Dec;22(23):18601-6. doi: 10.1007/s11356-015-5426-2. Epub 2015 Sep 23.
Arsenic is a well-known toxic substance on the living organisms. However, limited efforts have been made to study its DNA methylation, genomic instability, and long terminal repeat (LTR) retrotransposon polymorphism causing properties in different crops. In the present study, effects of As2O3 (arsenic trioxide) on LTR retrotransposon polymorphism and DNA methylation as well as DNA damage in Zea mays seedlings were investigated. The results showed that all of arsenic doses caused a decreasing genomic template stability (GTS) and an increasing Random Amplified Polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs) profile changes (DNA damage). In addition, increasing DNA methylation and LTR retrotransposon polymorphism characterized a model to explain the epigenetically changes in the gene expression were also found. The results of this experiment have clearly shown that arsenic has epigenetic effect as well as its genotoxic effect. Especially, the increasing of polymorphism of some LTR retrotransposon under arsenic stress may be a part of the defense system against the stress.
砷是一种众所周知的对生物有毒的物质。然而，在研究其在不同作物中引起DNA甲基化、基因组不稳定和长末端重复序列（LTR）逆转座子多态性方面所做的努力有限。在本研究中，研究了三氧化二砷（As2O3）对玉米幼苗LTR逆转座子多态性、DNA甲基化以及DNA损伤的影响。结果表明，所有砷剂量均导致基因组模板稳定性（GTS）降低，随机扩增多态性DNA（RAPD）图谱变化（DNA损伤）增加。此外，还发现DNA甲基化增加和LTR逆转座子多态性增加是解释基因表达表观遗传变化的一个模型。本实验结果清楚地表明，砷既有遗传毒性作用，也有表观遗传作用。特别是，在砷胁迫下某些LTR逆转座子多态性的增加可能是应激防御系统的一部分。
