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MONITORING ENDOCRINE DISRUPTION IN SHEEPSHEAD MINNOWS (C. VARIEGATUS) USING ARRAY TECHNOLOGY
Citation:
Larkin, P., N D. Denslow, M J. Hemmer, AND L C. Folmar. MONITORING ENDOCRINE DISRUPTION IN SHEEPSHEAD MINNOWS (C. VARIEGATUS) USING ARRAY TECHNOLOGY. Presented at SETAC 22ND Annual Meeting, Pensacola, FL, Nov 11-15, 2001.
Description:
Many anthropogenic chemicals that are found in the environment act through estrogen receptors. Binding of xenobiotics to estrogen receptors could negatively impact an animal by disrupting the expression of gene products and proteins at critical times during development and reproduction. The sheepshead minnow (Cyprinodon variegatus) is an excellent sentinel for monitoring the distribution of endocrine disrupting compounds in coastal waters throughout the United States since this fish is indigenous to these areas. The purpose of this study was to develop a sheepshead minnow macroarray chip that could serve as a high throughput genetic tool to monitor the distribution of endocrine disrupting compounds in the environment. Several genes that are involved in reproduction including vitellogenin, estrogen receptor, and vitelline envelope proteins, among others, were spotted on the macroarray. Radiolabeled RNA from control livers and livers of sheepshead minnows exposed to 17 b-estradiol (E2) were hybridized to the arrays. The results of these experiments demonstrate a characteristic expression pattern of up and down-regulated genes in sheepshead minnow that were exposed to E2. Based on the high throughput of array technology, fish macroarrays can serve as one method to detect the extent of exposure of animals to endocrine disrupting compounds in the wild.