TA2 Molecular Indicators for Ecological Exposure
255 Portland Ballroom
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Tuesday
() Prokaryotic and eukaryotic gene profiling assays: the ecotoxicological relevance of in vitro results?
Dardenne, F.1, Smolders, R.1, Naudts, B.2, Smet, A.2, De Coen, W.1, Blust, R.1, 1 Ecophysiology, Biochemistry and Toxicology Group, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium2 Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
ABSTRACT- Ecological systems are under continuing and often increasing anthropogenic pressure arising from different point and non-point sources of pollution and accidental spills. To prevent or remediate this situation there is a need for diagnostic tools that provide information on the mode of action of toxic compounds or mixtures and can be used to detect damage in an early phase of development. One of the earliest responses of a biological system to toxicity is the activation of specific systems to counter act the problems. Therefore responses at the level of gene expression can provide insight into the mode of action of the toxic compounds and the responses of the cells to it. However, very little is known concerning the relation between responses at the level of gene expression and responses at higher levels of organization resulting in acute or chronic toxicity. Gene profiling assays make use of a battery of stress gene promoters fused to an easily and quantitatively detectable reporter gene, each of which fusion is stably transformed into a bacterial strain or eukaryotic cell line. These assays detect a variety of transcriptional responses including membrane damage, oxidative stress, DNA damage and protein perturbation. The integration of these responses generates a unique fingerprint of the mode of action of a single compound, a mixture or environmental sample. In this study we explore the potential of gene profiling assays to predict the acute and chronic toxicity of toxicants with different modes of action, mixtures of these, and environmental samples to traditional ecotoxicological species. The potential value of this relatively new technique will be challenged by direct comparison to ecotoxicological data obtained on different levels of biological organization, using different organisms both under field and laboratory conditions.
Key words: profiling, gene, ecological, relevance