Concentration dependent gene expression changes in Daphnia magna exposed to metals

To determine dose-dependent effects of metal exposure we performed microarray hybridizations with RNA isolated from Daphnia magna following Cu, Cd, and Zn exposures over a range of concentrations that included a tolerated concentration, a sublethal concentration, and a highly toxic concentration. The gene expression profiles revealed effects to digestion related genes, immune related genes, metallothioneins, and oxidative stress genes at the higher concentrations. We also observed that the highest concentrations produced less specific gene expression profiles than the lower concentrations suggesting a more general stress response at the higher concentrations. The lowest concentration tested, representing tolerated concentrations of the metals, caused differential expression of only a few genes and were distinct from the expression profiles of the higher concentrations. This result provides support for the presence of a No Observed Transcriptional Effect Level (NOTEL) for metal exposure in D. magna and suggests that gene expression analysis may offer a strategy for distinguishing between toxic and nontoxic concentrations of metals in the environment. Keywords: ecotoxicogenomic exposure study We exposed Daphnia magna to 2 different concentrations of Cd and Zn and 3 different concentrations of Cu for 24 hours. For each exposure condition, we performed 3 exposures and 2 technical replicates (as dye swap) for each exposure (6 microarrays total). All exposures were compared to a unexposed laboratory control (COMBO media).