Exposure to the Neurotoxic Dinoflagellate, Alexandrium catenella, Induces Apoptosis of the Hemocytes of the Oyster, Crassostrea gigas

Marine Drugs

Walid Medhioub¹  Simon Ramondenc³  Audrey Sophie Vanhove³  Agnes Vergnes³  Estelle Masseret³  Veronique Savar²  Zouher Amzil²  Mohamed Laabir³ 

[1] Institut National des Sciences et Technologies de la Mer, Laboratoire Milieu Marin, 28 rue du 2 mars 1934, Salammbô 2025, Tunisia; E-Mail:;Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer, Laboratoire Environnement, Microbiologie et Phycotoxines, Rue de l’Ile d’Yeu BP 21105, Nantes CEDEX 3 44311, France; E-Mails:;Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Montpellier 2, Université de Montpellier 1, Institut de la Recherche pour le Développement, Unité Mixte de Recherche 5119 “Ecologie des Systèmes Marins Côtiers”, Place Eugene Bataillon, CC93, Montpellier cedex 5, 34095, France; E-Mails:

关键词: shellfish;    toxins;    apoptosis;    gene expression;   

DOI  :  10.3390/md11124799

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

This study assessed the apoptotic process occurring in the hemocytes of the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas, exposed to Alexandrium catenella, a paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) producer. Oysters were experimentally exposed during 48 h to the toxic algae. PSTs accumulation, the expression of 12 key apoptotic-related genes, as well as the variation of the number of hemocytes in apoptosis was measured at time intervals during the experiment. Results show a significant increase of the number of hemocytes in apoptosis after 29 h of exposure. Two pro-apoptotic genes (Bax and Bax-like) implicated in the mitochondrial pathway were significantly upregulated at 21 h followed by the overexpression of two caspase executor genes (caspase-3 and caspase-7) at 29 h, suggesting that the intrinsic pathway was activated. No modulation of the expression of genes implicated in the cell signaling Fas-Associated protein with Death Domain (FADD) and initiation-phase (caspase-2) was observed, suggesting that only the extrinsic pathway was not activated. Moreover, the clear time-dependent upregulation of five (Bcl2, BI-1, IAP1, IAP7B and Hsp70) inhibitors of apoptosis-related genes associated with the return to the initial number of hemocytes in apoptosis at 48 h of exposure suggests the involvement of strong regulatory mechanisms of apoptosis occurring in the hemocytes of the Pacific oyster.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.