Combined Effects of Cadmium and Copper on the Expression of Antioxidant Enzyme-Coding Genes in the Polychaete, Perinereis nuntia

摘要

Polychaetes have been used as useful model organisms for environmental pollution monitoring in aquatic sediments. Here, we investigated the combined effect of copper (50,100 and 200 mu g/L) and cadmium (50 mu g/L) on the expression of antioxidant enzyme-coding genes (seven GST isoforms, Mn-SOD and Cu /Zn-SOD) in the marine polychaete Perinereis nuntia by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. As a result, SOD genes, especially Cu/Zn-SOD significantly increased up to 48 h after exposure to a mixture of Cu andCd in a time and concentration-dependent manner more than in 50 mu g/L Cd alone exposure. Similar expression patterns were observed in most GST isoforms. In particular, GST-omega and GST-sigma gene expression were highly upregulated in response to a combined stress of Cd and Cu. These findings suggest that such genes would be useful as a potential molecular bio-marker for monitoring of combined environmental pollutions in aquatic ecosystem.