Dai Ou-Lin, Lei Zi-Yan, Peng Yuan-de, Wang Zhi
College of Resources and Environment, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, China.
Institute of Bast Fiber Crops, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Changsha, 410205, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Dec;29(60):90070-90080. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-22043-7. Epub 2022 Jul 21.
Soil cadmium (Cd) pollution is global environmental pollution and adversely affects paddy field organisms. Wolf spider grants a new insight to evaluate the toxicity triggered by Cd, yet the impact of chronic Cd exposure on the spider and its molecular mechanism remains unclear. The present study found that the wolf spider Pirata subpiraticus fed with Cd-accumulated flies for 5 weeks presented lower catalase, peroxidase, and acetylcholinesterase activities and higher malonaldehyde content than the control spiders (p < 0.05). An in-depth transcriptomic analysis yielded a total of 5995 differentially expressed genes (DEGs, with 3857 up-regulated and 2138 down-regulated genes) from the comparison, and 19 DEGs encoding three enzymatic indicators were down-regulated. Further enrichment analysis indicated that Cd stress could inhibit the expression of cuticle and chitin-encoding genes via the down-regulation of several key enzymes, such as chitin synthase, glutamine-fructose-6-phosphate transaminase, and chitinase. In addition, our findings suggested that hedgehog and FoxO signaling pathways might play an essential role in regulating survival, cell cycle, and autophagy process in spiders, which were primarily down-regulated under Cd stress. An intensely interactive network displayed that Cd exposure could repress key biological processes in P. subpiraticus, particularly peptide metabolic process and peptide biosynthetic process. To sum up, this integrative investigation confirmed an effective bioindicator for assessing Cd-induced toxicity; provided a mass of genes, proteins, and enzymes for further validation; and granted novel perspectives to uncover the molecular responses of spiders to Cd pollution.
土壤镉（Cd）污染是全球性环境污染问题，对稻田生物产生不利影响。狼蛛为评估镉引发的毒性提供了新的视角，然而长期镉暴露对蜘蛛的影响及其分子机制仍不清楚。本研究发现，以积累镉的苍蝇为食5周的拟水狼蛛，其过氧化氢酶、过氧化物酶和乙酰胆碱酯酶活性低于对照蜘蛛，丙二醛含量高于对照蜘蛛（p < 0.05）。深入的转录组分析共得到5995个差异表达基因（DEGs，其中3857个上调基因和2138个下调基因），编码三种酶指标的19个DEGs下调。进一步的富集分析表明，镉胁迫可通过下调几丁质合酶、谷氨酰胺 - 果糖 - 6 - 磷酸转氨酶和几丁质酶等关键酶的表达，抑制表皮和几丁质编码基因的表达。此外，我们的研究结果表明，刺猬和FoxO信号通路可能在调节蜘蛛的存活、细胞周期和自噬过程中起重要作用，在镉胁迫下这些通路主要下调。一个紧密交互的网络显示，镉暴露可抑制拟水狼蛛的关键生物学过程，特别是肽代谢过程和肽生物合成过程。综上所述，这项综合研究确定了一种评估镉诱导毒性的有效生物指标；提供了大量基因、蛋白质和酶以供进一步验证；并为揭示蜘蛛对镉污染的分子反应提供了新的视角。
