PH14 Ecotoxicogenomics
Exhibit Hall
8:00 AM - Thursday
(PH160) Comparison of gene expression among F1 embryos of parents from clean and polluted sites.
Bozinovic, G1, Oleksiak, M, 1 North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
ABSTRACT- Embryos are highly sensitive to pollution, and exposure to contaminated sediments can result in altered development and growth and can affect survival. Sediment extracts from highly polluted environments can be lethal to Fundulus heteroclitus embryos from clean sites, while embryos of parents from the polluted environment are remarkably resistant. What changes during development contribute to this resistance? We hypothesize that altered gene expression is important and will test this using microarray analyses to quantify changes in mRNA expression during development. We will compare the expression of a subset of mRNAs encoding metabolic genes in F1 Fundulus embryos of parents from clean and polluted sites during sensitive developmental stages.
Key words: embryo, gene, development, microarrays