Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa, Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Mol Ecol. 2018 Mar;27(5):1170-1187. doi: 10.1111/mec.14531. Epub 2018 Mar 8.
Anticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) are indiscriminate toxicants that threaten nontarget predatory and scavenger species through secondary poisoning. Accumulating evidence suggests that AR exposure may have disruptive sublethal consequences on individuals that can affect fitness. We evaluated AR-related effects on genome-wide expression patterns in a population of bobcats in southern California. We identify differential expression of genes involved in xenobiotic metabolism, endoplasmic reticulum stress response, epithelial integrity and both adaptive and innate immune function. Further, we find that differential expression of immune-related genes may be attributable to AR-related effects on leucocyte differentiation. Collectively, our results provide an unprecedented understanding of the sublethal effects of AR exposure on a wild carnivore. These findings highlight potential detrimental effects of ARs on a wide variety of species worldwide that may consume poisoned rodents and indicate the need to investigate gene expression effects of other toxicants added to natural environments by humans.
抗凝血灭鼠剂（ARs）是不分青红皂白的毒物，通过二次中毒威胁着非目标捕食者和食腐动物物种。越来越多的证据表明，AR 暴露可能对个体产生破坏性的亚致死后果，从而影响其适应性。我们评估了南加州的山猫种群中与 AR 相关的全基因组表达模式的影响。我们确定了参与外源物质代谢、内质网应激反应、上皮完整性以及适应性和先天免疫功能的基因的差异表达。此外，我们发现免疫相关基因的差异表达可能归因于 AR 对白细胞分化的相关影响。总的来说，我们的研究结果提供了对抗凝血灭鼠剂暴露对野生食肉动物的亚致死影响的前所未有的理解。这些发现强调了 ARs 对全球范围内可能食用中毒老鼠的各种物种的潜在有害影响，并表明需要研究人类添加到自然环境中的其他毒物的基因表达效应。
