Molecular and functional characterisation of endocrine disruption in marine invertebrates

Project Description

LAY: Household products, including toothpaste, soaps, and common drugs, may be putting inland waterways and coastal environments under threat. Chemicals found in some personal care products and pharmaceuticals are accumulating in rivers, canals and estuaries as a result of day-to-day activities and industry. A lot of these polluting chemicals are endocrine disruptors able to affect the estrogenic hormonal system and are thus harmful to wildlife and exposed human populations. Known as ‘watch list chemicals’, they have the potential to disrupt hormone balances in wildlife, resulting in organisms having both male and female characteristics. This in turn affects the reproduction of fish and other organisms, with known effects for the whole population. In understanding more about how these chemicals have an effect on aquatic life, it will be possible to target those chemicals responsible for reproductive damage in aquatic organisms and help inform legislators and regulators in their management of them. In terms of wider implications, there is also research suggesting a link between endocrine disruptors and neurodevelopment impacts. By using the invertebrate model organisms in this approach, we can study their neural development to detect any additional endocrine disruptor-induced neurodevelopment defects.

SCIENTIFIC: This project is bringing together an environmental toxicology laboratory (UK) and a developmental biology laboratory (France) to discover how estrogens and xeno-estrogen affect the life cycles ascidians and mussels, two filter feeding marine organisms populating European waters which represent ecologically-important and widely used sentinel species in environmental monitoring applications.

Aim 1. To establish, and compare, the biological impacts of estrogen and xeno-estrogen exposure on ascidian (Phallusia mammillata) and mollusks (Mytilus edulis and M. galloprovincialis) embryogenesis. To adapt the protocols devised on ascidian embryos for extensive phenotypic analysis of Mytilus embryos exposed to estrogens and xeno-estrogens. To define which developmental processes are specifically affected by xeno-estrogens using a pharmacological approach and high content imaging of embryonic development.
Aim 2. To monitor the activity of ascidians and mussels estrogen receptor (ER) and estrogen related receptor (ERR) by imaging their intracellular localisation during development and in response to estrogen and xeno-estrogen exposure in live ascidian embryos. To compare the activity of ascidian and mussel ER/ERR with that of Hs-ERalpha using a model of humanized ascidian embryos (transgenic ascidian embryos expressing Hs-Era).
Aim 3. To devise efficient protocols for transgenesis of Mytilus edulis/galloprovinciallis (based on the methods available for Phallusia mammillata routinely used at the French hosting institution). To use transgenic Mytilus embryos to monitor endogenous ER/ERR activity during development and upon estrogen and xeno-estrogen exposure. To correlate patterns of ER/ERR activity with gene expression in order to find a molecular signature of endocrine disruption in Mytilus embryos.