Profiling differentially expressed earthworm genes in response to TNT exposure.

To understand molecular mechanisms of the chronic, sublethal toxicity of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT), a widely used ordnance compound of public concerns, we constructed a microarray consisting of 4,032 cDNA isolated from the earthworm Eisenia fetida using the suppressive subtractive hybridization technique. Worms were exposed to a gradient of TNT-spiked soil for 28 days. Based on the reproduction response to TNT, four treatments, i.e., control, 7, 35 and 139 ppm, were selected for gene expression studies. Keywords: Sublethal toxicity of TNT (dose-response) to earthworm (Eisenia fetida) We analyzed 40 arrays for 4 treatments (control, 7ppm, 35ppm, 139ppm) with 5 biological replicates per treatment using an interwoven loop designed hybridization scheme.