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THE USE OF GENE ARRAYS TO MEASURE CHANGES IN GENE EXPRESSION PATTERNS IN FISH EXPOSED TO COMPOUNDS THAT MIMIC ESTROGEN
Citation:
Denslow, N D., P. Larkin, T. SaboAttwood, M J. Hemmer, AND L C. Folmar. THE USE OF GENE ARRAYS TO MEASURE CHANGES IN GENE EXPRESSION PATTERNS IN FISH EXPOSED TO COMPOUNDS THAT MIMIC ESTROGEN. Presented at Ecological Perspectives of Genomics: Assessing Ecological Risk Through Partnerships, Pensacola, FL, Sep 23-25, 2002.
Description:
We have developed estrogen-sensitive gene arrays to measure changes in gene expression in sheepshead minnows and largemouth bass exposed to anthropogenic chemicals that mimic estrogen. The in vivo exposures, which realize the full physiological response in fish, result in changes at the molecular level that can be deciphered by gene arrays. Sheepshead minnows were exposed to environmental concentrations of strong estrogens: 17-beta-estradiol, 17-alpha-ethynylestradiol, diethylstibestrol, and weak estrogens: methoxychlor, p-nonylphenol and endosulfan in a flow-through format. While a general estrogenic response pattern was observed for all the exposures except endosulfan, the response of some genes varied depending on the compound used, suggesting that contaminant-specific patterns of gene regulation may exist. The chips were useful to measure dose-dependent changes in gene induction for fish treated with 20 ng/L to 1000 ng/L ethynylestradiol. Largemouth bass were exposed to 17-beta-estradiol, p-nonylphenol and 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis (p-chlorophenyl) ethylene (p,p'-DDE) by IP injection. Again, we observed similar contaminant-specific up-regulation of gene expression in fish exposed to 17 beta-estradiol and p-nonylphenol. Initial experiments suggest that p,p'-DDE has different induction effects in males and females; where known estrogen sensitive genes are up-regulated in males while the same genes are down-regulated in females. Overall, this research suggests that a better understanding of the consequences of exposure can be obtained from monitoring multiple genes at one time.