The earthworm Eisenia fetida is one of the most used species in standardized soil ecotoxicity tests. Endpoints such as survival, growth and reproduction are ecologically relevant but provide little mechanistic insight into the toxicity pathways, especially at the molecular level. To better understand toxicological modes of action and to facilitate the development of molecular biomarkers, we have obtained 30,245 unique EST sequences from E. fetida and have designed a novel microarray with 15,119 60-mer oligonucleotide probes. These probes target the unique non-redundant EST sequences identified in E. fetida. Using this array we have profiled gene expression of E. fetida after exposure to CL-20, a cage cyclic nitramine previously found exhibiting reversible neurotoxicity to worms. Worms were exposed for 6 days to CL-20. Half of the exposed worms were allowed to recover in a clean environment for 7 days. Electrophysiological analysis showed that the conduction velocity of worm medial giant nerve fiber was significantly decreased after 6-d exposure to CL-20, and that giant nerve fiber function was restored at the end of the 7-d recovery period. Total RNA samples isolated from four treatment groups (6 replicates per group), i.e., 6-d control, 6-d exposed, 13-d control and 6-d exposed with 7-d recovery, were analyzed using the new 15K oligo array. Bioinformatics and statistical analyses have identified specific neurological pathways affected by CL-20 and recovery of these pathways after CL-20 removal. These results provide significant insights on the CL-20 toxic mode of action and how earthworms can recover from chemical stressors.
Overall design
Adult earthworms (E. fetida) were exposed on filter paper to CL-20 (0.2 ug/cm2) for 6 days with or without 7-day recovery (4 treatment groups in total). Each treatment group had 9 replicate worms, six of which were used for gene expression analysis. Worms were measured for their medial giant nerve fiber conduction velocity using a non-invasive electrophysiological technique immediately before takedown. At the termination of the 6-d or 13-d experiment, worms were snap-frozen and fixed in RNAlater-ICE. Total RNA was isolated from the fixed worms. A total of 24 worm RNA samples were hybridized to three 8x15K custom-designed Agilent oligo arrays using Agilent’s one-color Low RNA Input Linear Amplification Kit. The array contains 15,208 non-redundant 60-mer probes, each targeting a unique E. fetida transcript. After hybridization and scanning, gene expression data were acquired using GenePix Pro 6.0.
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