Fundulus exposed to arsenic as embryos. Fundulus heteroclitus

The present study used microarray expression profiling to determine the effects of embryonic arsenic exposure. Fertilized killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) eggs were exposed to 0, 5, 15, or 25ppm arsenic as sodium arsenite. To examine differentially expressed genes, the microarrays were probed using RNA obtained from the control and 25ppm-exposed killifish just after hatching. No differences were noted in survival or hatching success between any of the groups. After analysis, a set of 332 genes was found to accurately distinguish between the control and 25ppm exposure groups. Expression of several of the genes (CDBP1, Arts1, FetB, and Fbp7) was quantified by qPCR in the lower exposure groups and at earlier time points to examine temporal and dose-responsive expression patterns. These results will enable us to better understand how arsenic impacts development. Overall design: Killifish eggs were fertilized, divided into petri dishes containing 40 eggs (n=10 replicate petri dishes), and cultured until hatch in 0 or 25 ppm arsenic as sodium arsenite. Four to five hatchlings within each petri dish were pooled to obtain RNA. A total of 20 arrays were probed, 10 with RNA from control fish and 10 with RNA from the arsenic-exposed fish.