Transcriptome Analysis of C. elegans Reveals Novel Targets for DON Cytotoxicity
Department of Plant Biology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA
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Toxins 2018, 10(7), 262; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins10070262
Received: 28 April 2018
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Revised: 13 June 2018
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Accepted: 25 June 2018
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Published: 27 June 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Metabolomics in Mycotoxin Research)
Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a mycotoxin produced by Fusarium spp. that causes Fusarium head blight (FHB) disease in cereal crops. Ingestion of food contaminated with DON poses serious human health complications. However, the DON cytotoxicity has been mostly deduced from animal studies. In this study, we used the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) as a tractable animal model to dissect the toxic effect of DON. Our results indicate that DON reduces the fecundity and lifespan of C. elegans. Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis showed that DON upregulates innate immunity-related genes including C17H12.8 and K08D8.5 encoding PMK-1 (mitogen activated protein kinase-1)-regulated immune effectors, and F35E12.5 encoding a CUB-like domain-containing protein. Furthermore, our RNAseq data demonstrate that out of ~17,000 C. elegans genes, 313 are upregulated and 166 were downregulated by DON treatment. Among the DON-upregulated genes, several are ugt genes encoding UDP-glucuronosyl transferase (UGTs) which are known to be involved in chemical detoxification. The three upregulated genes, F52F10.4 (oac-32), C10H11.6 (ugt-26) and C10H11.4 (ugt-28) encoding the O-acyltransferase homolog, UGT26 and UGT 28, respectively, are shown to contribute to DON tolerance by a RNAi bacterial feeding experiment. The results of this study provide insights to the targets of DON cytotoxicity and potential mitigation measures.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Di, R.; Zhang, H.; Lawton, M.A. Transcriptome Analysis of C. elegans Reveals Novel Targets for DON Cytotoxicity. Toxins 2018, 10, 262. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins10070262
AMA Style
Di R, Zhang H, Lawton MA. Transcriptome Analysis of C. elegans Reveals Novel Targets for DON Cytotoxicity. Toxins. 2018; 10(7):262. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins10070262
Chicago/Turabian StyleDi, Rong, Hanzhong Zhang, and Michael A. Lawton. 2018. "Transcriptome Analysis of C. elegans Reveals Novel Targets for DON Cytotoxicity" Toxins 10, no. 7: 262. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins10070262
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