Transcriptional Analyses of Acute Exposure to Methylmercury on Erythrocytes of Loggerhead Sea Turtle.
Javier Hernández-FernándezAndrés Pinzón-VelascoEllie Anne LópezPilar Rodríguez-BecerraLeonardo Mariño-RamírezPublished in: Toxics (2021)
To understand changes in enzyme activity and gene expression as biomarkers of exposure to methylmercury, we exposed loggerhead turtle erythrocytes (RBCs) to concentrations of 0, 1, and 5 mg L-1 of MeHg and de novo transcriptome were assembled using RNA-seq. The analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) indicated that 79 unique genes were dysregulated (39 upregulated and 44 downregulated genes). The results showed that MeHg altered gene expression patterns as a response to the cellular stress produced, reflected in cell cycle regulation, lysosomal activity, autophagy, calcium regulation, mitochondrial regulation, apoptosis, and regulation of transcription and translation. The analysis of DEGs showed a low response of the antioxidant machinery to MeHg, evidenced by the fact that genes of early response to oxidative stress were not dysregulated. The RBCs maintained a constitutive expression of proteins that represented a good part of the defense against reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by MeHg.
Keyphrases
- gene expression
- oxidative stress
- rna seq
- genome wide
- cell cycle
- reactive oxygen species
- single cell
- dna methylation
- cell death
- bioinformatics analysis
- dna damage
- genome wide identification
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- cell proliferation
- transcription factor
- poor prognosis
- induced apoptosis
- liver failure
- signaling pathway
- genome wide analysis
- binding protein
- long non coding rna
- heat stress
- pi k akt