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Lookup NU author(s): Emeritus Professor Matt Bentley
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Diatoms are dominant photosynthetic organisms in the world's oceans and represent a major food source for zooplankton and benthic filter-feeders. However, their beneficial role in sustaining marine food webs has been challenged after the discovery that they produce secondary metabolites, such as polyunsaturated aldehydes (PUAs), which negatively affect the reproductive success of many invertebrates. Here, we report the effects of two common diatom PUAs, heptadienal and octadienal, which have never been tested before at the molecular level, using the sea urchin, Paracentrotus lividus, as a model organism. We show that both PUAs are able to induce teratogenesis (i.e., malformations), as already reported for decadienal, the better-studied PUA of this group. Moreover, post-recovery experiments show that embryos can recover after treatment with all three PUAs, indicating that negative effects depend both on PUA concentrations and the exposure time of the embryos to these metabolites. We also identify the time range during which PUAs exert the greatest effect on sea urchin embryogenesis. Finally, we report the expression levels of thirty one genes (having a key role in a broad range of functional responses, such as stress, development, differentiation, skeletogenesis and detoxification processes) in order to identify the common targets affected by PUAs and their correlation with morphological abnormalities. This study opens new perspectives for understanding how marine organisms afford protection from environmental toxicants through an integrated network of genes.
Author(s): Varrella S, Romano G, Ianora A, Bentley MG, Ruocco N, Costantini M
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Marine Drugs
Year: 2014
Volume: 12
Issue: 4
Pages: 2089-2113
Online publication date: 04/04/2014
Acceptance date: 25/03/2014
Date deposited: 01/10/2014
ISSN (electronic): 1660-3397
Publisher: MDPI AG
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/md12042089
DOI: 10.3390/md12042089
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