Morphological, Gene, and Hormonal Changes in Gonads and In-Creased Micrococcal Nuclease Accessibility of Sperm Chromatin Induced by Mercury

Biomolecules

Alessia Ambrosino¹  Marina Prisco¹  Shana Perrella¹  Marina Piscopo¹  Gennaro Lettieri¹  Nadia Carusone¹  Caterina Manna²  Rosaria Notariale² 

[1] Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Via Cinthia, 21, 80126 Naples, Italy;Department of Precision Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via Luigi de Crecchio, 80138 Naples, Italy;

关键词: mercury;    Mytilus galloprovincialis;    protamine-like proteins genes;    gonad;    spermatozoa;    micrococcal nuclease digestion;   

DOI  :  10.3390/biom12010087

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Mercury is one of the most dangerous environmental pollutants. In this work, we analysed the effects of exposure of Mytilus galloprovincialis to 1, 10 and 100 pM HgCl₂ for 24 h on the gonadal morphology and on the expression level of three stress genes: mt10, hsp70 and πgst. In this tissue we also evaluated the level of steroidogenic enzymes 3β-HSD and 17β-HSD and the expression of PL protein genes. Finally, we determined difference in sperm chromatin accessibility to micrococcal nuclease. We found alterations in gonadal morphology especially after exposure to 10 and 100 pM HgCl₂ and hypo-expression of the three stress genes, particularly for hsp70. Furthermore, decreased labelling with both 3β-HSD and 17β-HSD antibodies was observed following exposure to 1 and 10 pM HgCl₂ and complete absence at 100 pM HgCl₂ exposure. Gonads of mussels exposed to all HgCl₂ doses showed decreased expression of PL protein genes especially for PLIII. Finally, micrococcal nuclease digestions showed that all doses of HgCl₂ exposure resulted in increased sperm chromatin accessibility to this enzyme, indicative of improper sperm chromatin structure. All of these changes provide preliminary data of the potential toxicity of mercury on the reproductive health of this mussel.

【 授权许可】

Unknown