Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Department of Marine Biotechnology, Villa Comunale, 80121 Naples, Italy.
Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Complesso di Monte Sant'Angelo, Via Cinthia 21, 80126 Naples, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Nov 19;22(22):12498. doi: 10.3390/ijms222212498.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) represent the most common pollutants in the marine sediments. Previous investigations demonstrated short-term sublethal effects of sediments polluted with both contaminants on the sea urchin after 2 months of exposure in mesocosms. In particular, morphological malformations observed in embryos deriving from adults exposed to PAHs and PCBs were explained at molecular levels by transcriptome assembly and real-time qPCR, leading to the identification of several differentially expressed genes involved in key physiological processes. Here, we extensively explored the genes involved in the response of the sea urchin to PAHs and PCBs. Firstly, 25 new genes were identified and interactomic analysis revealed that they were functionally connected among them and to several genes previously defined as molecular targets of response to the two pollutants under analysis. The expression levels of these 25 genes were followed by Real Time qPCR, showing that almost all genes analyzed were affected by PAHs and PCBs. These findings represent an important further step in defining the impacts of slight concentrations of such contaminants on sea urchins and, more in general, on marine biota, increasing our knowledge of molecular targets involved in responses to environmental stressors.
多环芳烃（PAHs）和多氯联苯（PCBs）是海洋沉积物中最常见的污染物。先前的研究表明，在 2 个月的中观实验中，受这两种污染物污染的沉积物对海胆具有短期亚致死效应。特别是，在暴露于 PAHs 和 PCBs 的成体所产生的 胚胎中观察到的形态畸形，在分子水平上通过转录组组装和实时 qPCR 得到了解释，从而确定了几种涉及关键生理过程的差异表达基因。在这里，我们广泛研究了海胆对 PAHs 和 PCBs 反应的相关基因。首先，鉴定了 25 个新基因，互作网络分析表明，它们在功能上相互连接，并与先前定义的作为分析的两种污染物分子靶标的几个基因相互连接。通过实时 qPCR 跟踪这些 25 个基因的表达水平，结果表明分析的几乎所有基因都受到 PAHs 和 PCBs 的影响。这些发现代表了在确定这些污染物的轻微浓度对海胆以及更广泛的海洋生物群的影响方面的重要进一步步骤，增加了我们对涉及环境胁迫反应的分子靶标的认识。
