Rossi Riccardo, Ruotolo Roberta, De Giorgio Giuseppe, Marmiroli Marta, Villani Marco, Zappettini Andrea, Marmiroli Nelson
Department of Chemistry, Life Sciences and Environmental Sustainability, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 11/A, 43124 Parma, PR, Italy.
Institute of Materials for Electronics and Magnetism (IMEM), National Research Council (CNR), Parco Area delle Scienze 37/A, 43124 Parma, PR, Italy.
Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Jun 27;12(13):2208. doi: 10.3390/nano12132208.
In the last decades, nanotechnology-based tools have attracted attention in the scientific community, due to their potential applications in different areas from medicine to engineering, but several toxicological effects mediated by these advanced materials have been shown on the environment and human health. At present, the effects of engineered nanomaterials on gametogenesis have not yet been well understood. In the present study, we addressed this issue using the yeast as a model eukaryote to evaluate the effects of cadmium sulfide quantum dots (CdS QDs) on sporulation, a process equivalent to gametogenesis in higher organisms. We have observed that CdS QDs cause a strong inhibition of spore development with the formation of aberrant, multinucleated cells. In line with these observations, treatment with CdS QDs down-regulates genes encoding crucial regulators of sporulation process, in particular, the transcription factor Ndt80 that coordinates different genes involved in progression through the meiosis and spore morphogenesis. Down-regulation of mediated by CdS QDs causes a block of the meiotic cell cycle and a return to mitosis, leading to the formation of aberrant, multinucleated cells. These results indicate that CdS QDs inhibit gametogenesis in an irreversible manner, with adverse effects on cell-cycle progression.
在过去几十年中，基于纳米技术的工具在科学界引起了关注，这是由于它们在从医学到工程等不同领域的潜在应用，但这些先进材料介导的几种毒理学效应已在环境和人类健康方面显现出来。目前，工程纳米材料对配子发生的影响尚未得到很好的理解。在本研究中，我们以酵母作为模式真核生物来解决这个问题，以评估硫化镉量子点（CdS QDs）对孢子形成的影响，孢子形成过程相当于高等生物中的配子发生。我们观察到，CdS QDs会强烈抑制孢子发育，并形成异常的多核细胞。与这些观察结果一致，用CdS QDs处理会下调编码孢子形成过程关键调节因子的基因，特别是转录因子Ndt80，它协调参与减数分裂进程和孢子形态发生的不同基因。CdS QDs介导的下调导致减数分裂细胞周期阻滞并恢复到有丝分裂，从而导致异常多核细胞的形成。这些结果表明，CdS QDs以不可逆的方式抑制配子发生，并对细胞周期进程产生不利影响。
