The effects of polystyrene microsphere on Artemia salina: First evidence highlighting the molecular response mechanism through transcriptome analysis

Microplastics contamination is one of the leading environmental catastrophes for the marine ecosystem is microplastic contamination. The impact of the intake of polystyrene microsphere has evaluated, albeit the bioaccumulation, oxidative stress, and molecular effects of those microplastics, especially on so called for the brine shrimp Artemia salina (A. salina). Our study aims to determine the effects of polystyrene microsphere (PM) exposure. To elucidate the underlying mechanisms of PM mediated toxicity, and to illuminate patterns of global gene expression modulated by exposure to PM, A.salina transcriptome data via RNA sequencing technology with the differential gene expression were investigated. A total of 47301 transcripts were obtained, which were clustered into 36370 unigene with an N50 1498 bp and an average length of 1002.89. For functional annotation 12690, 10813, 11106, 2374, 8570, 8362 were annotated to the NR annotation, GO annotation, COG annotation, Swissport/KEGG. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that those DEGs were differentially expressed gene was predominantly related to regulate those signaling pathway. All the results in present study provides not only highlights the negative impacts, but also provided the detailed sequence data with gene expression studies, which enhanced our understanding of the molecular toxicology of PM on A. salina.

微塑料污染是威胁海洋生态系统的首要环境灾难之一。尽管已有研究对聚苯乙烯微球（polystyrene microsphere, PM）的摄入影响进行了评估，但针对这类微塑料的生物富集、氧化应激与分子效应的研究仍有待深入，尤其是针对卤虫（Artemia salina，简称A. salina）的相关效应。本研究旨在明确聚苯乙烯微球暴露的生物学效应：为阐明PM介导毒性的潜在分子机制，并揭示PM暴露所调控的全局基因表达模式，本研究通过RNA测序（RNA sequencing）技术获取了A. salina的转录组数据，并对其中的差异基因表达（differential gene expression）情况展开分析。本次研究共获得47301条转录本，经聚类后得到36370个单基因簇（unigene），其N50值为1498 bp，平均长度为1002.89 bp。在功能注释环节，分别有12690、10813、11106、2374、8570、8362条序列被注释到NCBI非冗余蛋白（NR）数据库、基因本体论（GO）数据库、直系同源基因簇（COG）数据库、Swiss-Prot数据库及京都基因与基因组百科全书（KEGG）中。生物信息学分析结果显示，本研究鉴定得到的差异表达基因（DEGs）主要富集于各类信号通路的调控相关功能模块中。本研究的所有结果不仅揭示了PM暴露的负面生态效应，还提供了详实的序列数据与基因表达研究资料，从而加深了我们对PM在A. salina中分子毒理效应的认知。