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Regulation of target genes transcription in copepods Acartia tonsa waterborne or foodborne exposed to naked or metal-doped nanoplastics of different sizes and polymer composition
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Researchers exposed the marine copepod Acartia tonsa to nanoplastics via waterborne and foodborne routes and measured transcriptional responses in target genes. Exposure route influenced gene expression patterns, with foodborne exposure producing distinct molecular responses compared to direct waterborne contact.
Nanoplastic (NP) pollution in aquatic ecosystems is of global concern. Metal-doped NPs are applied in toxicological studies to assess NPs fate in the organisms using ICP-MS. This work aimed to investigate transcriptional effects of waterborne or foodborne exposure to different NPs on the marine copepod Acartia tonsa. Copepods were exposed for 24 h to 100, 200, 500 or 1000 nm polystyrene (PS) NPs, 144 nm Pd-doped PS NPs or to 200 nm Au-doped polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene (PE) NPs. Exposures did not cause mortality or changes in ingestion rates of copepods. Transcription levels of ferritin, catalase, heat shock protein(hsp) 90 and hsp 70, and cyp3026b were quantified by RT-qPCR. In addition, accumulation of metal-doped NPs was measured in microalgae and copepods and their feces using ICP-MS. Results demonstrated that although PS NPs of different sizes did not affect mRNA levels, Pd-PS NPs caused significant changes in transcription of genes involved in general and oxidative stress. ICP-MS confirmed the accumulation of Pd-PS NPs in copepods exposed both through water and algae. Au-PP NPs also induced significant changes in copepods mRNA levels. In addition, the accumulation of Au-PP NPs in copepods was found to be higher compared to those exposed to Au-PVC or Au-PE NPs. The Au mass in foodborne Au-PVC and Au-PE NPs exposed copepods was slightly higher in feces than in copepods, suggesting that these were excreting the NPs through feces when fed with microalgae. This study demonstrates that NPs accumulation/excretion, as well as the molecular mechanisms regulated in A.tonsa, depend on the plastic polymer type, the presence of metals and the exposure route (waterborne versus foodborne). *Funding: EC CAS NANOPLASTICS project (DG JRC), Spanish MICINN FIERA project (PID2021-128600OB-I00), Basque Government (grant to consolidated research group IT1743-22 and postdoctoral grant to NGS) and Euskampus Fundazioa (LTC AquEus). Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/559709/document
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